@article {782, title = {Sleep-disordered breathing is not associated with the presence of retinal microvascular abnormalities: the Sleep Heart Health Study.}, journal = {Sleep}, volume = {27}, year = {2004}, month = {2004 May 01}, pages = {467-73}, abstract = {

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Sleep apnea and milder forms of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) have been associated with overt clinical cardiovascular disease, but it is unknown whether SDB is associated with arterial microvascular pathology. We examined the relation between SDB and retinal microvascular abnormalities.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.

PARTICIPANTS: Subjects were 2,927 men and women, aged 51 to 97 years, who participated in the Sleep Heart Health Study and had retinal photographs taken within approximately 3 years of overnight, unattended, at-home polysomnography.

MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: A respiratory disturbance index (RDI), calculated as the average number of apneas and hypopneas per hour of sleep, was used as an indicator of SDB in analysis. The overall prevalence of retinopathy was slightly higher in people with higher RDI values (5.4\%, 4.9\%, 8.6\%, and 7.6\%, respectively, in increasing quartiles of RDI), but after adjustment for age, body-mass index, hypertension, diabetes, and other factors, the presence of retinopathy was not associated with SDB. With the possible exceptions of microaneurysms and generalized arteriolar narrowing, as measured by lower arteriole-to-venule ratio, specific retinal abnormalities were not associated consistently with the RDI. Relative to the first quartile of RDI, the adjusted odds ratios (95\% confidence interval) for the presence of microaneurysm in the second, third, and fourth quartiles of RDI were 1.05 (0.44-2.55), 1.97 (0.89-4.37), and 1.79 (0.78-4.10), respectively. An increase of RDI from 0 to 10 was associated with a predicted decrease in arteriole-to-venule ratio of 0.01. Results were similar when analyses were conducted in normotensive and nondiabetic persons separately.

CONCLUSIONS: These data do not demonstrate a notable relation between SDB and retinal abnormalities. However, since this is the first investigation of a link between retinopathy and SDB, similar studies should be conducted in other population samples to demonstrate either consistency or inconsistency of our findings across studies.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Body Mass Index, Coronary Disease, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Hypoxia, Middle Aged, Polysomnography, Positive-Pressure Respiration, Retina, Retinal Vessels, Sleep Apnea Syndromes}, issn = {0161-8105}, doi = {10.1093/sleep/27.3.467}, author = {Boland, Lori L and Shahar, Eyal and Wong, Tien Y and Klein, Ronald and Punjabi, Naresh and Robbins, John A and Newman, Anne B} } @article {854, title = {Associations between retinal microvascular abnormalities and declining renal function in the elderly population: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Am J Kidney Dis}, volume = {46}, year = {2005}, month = {2005 Aug}, pages = {214-24}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Microvascular abnormalities in the kidney are common histopathologic findings in individuals with chronic kidney disease or renal failure. These abnormalities may represent one manifestation of ongoing systemic microvascular damage. We hypothesized that retinal microvascular abnormalities, when present, would be associated with progressive renal dysfunction in elderly individuals.

METHODS: The Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) is a prospective, multicenter, cohort study initiated in 1989 designed to examine cardiovascular risk factors, morbidity, and mortality in elderly Americans. As part of an ancillary study, CHS participants underwent retinal photography in 1997 and 1998. Retinal microvascular abnormalities were assessed and graded by using standardized measures. Retinal microvascular abnormalities were defined as retinopathy (hard and soft exudates, hemorrhages, or microaneurysms) and/or retinal arteriolar abnormalities (arteriovenous nicking, focal arteriolar narrowing, or lowest quartile arteriole-venule ratio). Associations between these abnormalities and observed 4-year changes in serum creatinine levels and estimated glomerular filtration rates (eGFRs) from study years 5 to 9 (encompassing years 1994 to 2001) were examined by using regression modeling.

RESULTS: A total of 1,394 CHS participants had retinal and serum creatinine data. After adjustments for age, race, sex, weight, diabetes, hypertension, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor use, and proteinuria, participants with retinopathy showed a significant increase in serum creatinine level and decline in eGFR compared with those without retinopathy during the 4-year study period (+0.24 mg/dL [+21 micromol/L] versus -0.21 mg/dL [-19 micromol/L] and -0.48 mL/min/1.73 m2 [-0.01 mL/s/1.73 m2] versus +1.74 mL/min/1.73 m2 [+0.03 mL/s/1.73 m2], respectively). Participants with retinopathy also were significantly more likely to have an observed significant deterioration in renal function, defined as a 0.3-mg/dL (27-micromol/L) increase in serum creatinine level or 20\% or greater decline in eGFR (odds ratio, 3.20; 95\% confidence interval, 1.58 to 6.50; and odds ratio, 2.84; 95\% confidence interval, 1.56 to 5.16, respectively). These associations remained in separate stratified analyses of patients with and without diabetes. The presence of retinal arteriolar abnormalities was not associated with deteriorating renal function.

CONCLUSION: Retinal microvascular abnormalities defined as retinopathy were significantly associated with renal function deterioration. The observed findings were independent of effects of any associated diabetes or hypertension. These findings suggest that systemic microvascular disease may be associated with progressive renal dysfunction in the elderly population.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Antihypertensive Agents, Capillaries, Cohort Studies, Comorbidity, Creatinine, Diabetes Mellitus, Disease Progression, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Hypertension, Kidney, Male, Photography, Prospective Studies, Proteinuria, Retina, Retinal Diseases, Retinal Vessels}, issn = {1523-6838}, doi = {10.1053/j.ajkd.2005.05.005}, author = {Edwards, Matthew S and Wilson, David B and Craven, Timothy E and Stafford, Jeanette and Fried, Linda F and Wong, Tien Y and Klein, Ronald and Burke, Gregory L and Hansen, Kimberley J} } @article {935, title = {Apolipoprotein e gene and age-related maculopathy in older individuals: the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Arch Ophthalmol}, volume = {125}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 Jan}, pages = {68-73}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene and age-related maculopathy (ARM) in an older population.

METHODS: Two thousand one hundred seventy persons 65 years and older sampled from 4 US communities had ARM signs assessed from retinal photographs using a modified Wisconsin Age-Related Maculopathy Grading System. DNA extracted from blood samples was analyzed for common APOE alleles.

RESULTS: After controlling for age, sex, cigarette smoking, and other factors, white participants carrying the epsilon2 allele had an increased risk of late ARM (odds ratio, 2.53 [95\% confidence interval, 1.08-5.90]) while carriers of the epsilon4 allele had a lower risk of late ARM (odds ratio, 0.69 [95\% confidence interval, 0.19-2.50]). There were too few late ARM cases in African American individuals for analysis.

CONCLUSION: APOE polymorphism is associated with late ARM in older white persons 65 years and older. Consistent with previous studies, the APOE epsilon2 allele is associated with a significant increased risk of late ARM development, whereas the epsilon4 allele may confer some protection.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alleles, Apolipoprotein E2, Apolipoprotein E3, Apolipoprotein E4, Cardiovascular Diseases, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genotype, Humans, Macular Degeneration, Male, Odds Ratio, Polymorphism, Genetic, Risk Factors}, issn = {0003-9950}, doi = {10.1001/archopht.125.1.68}, author = {Tikellis, Gabriella and Sun, Cong and Gorin, Michael B and Klein, Ronald and Klein, Barbara E K and Larsen, Emily K Marino and Siscovick, David S and Hubbard, Larry D and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {1003, title = {Apolipoprotein E gene and retinal microvascular signs in older people: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Mol Vis}, volume = {13}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 Nov 12}, pages = {2105-11}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: To examine the association between apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene polymorphism and retinal microvascular signs in an older population.

METHODS: Retinal photographs were taken of 2,152 participants (1,831 whites, and 321 African-Americans), aged 69-96 years, who were participating in a population-based study of four United States communities. We used standardized protocols to assess photographs for the presence of retinal microvascular signs (retinopathy, arterio-venous nicking, and focal arteriolar narrowing) and a computer-assisted method to measure retinal vessel diameters. We analyzed DNA extracted from blood samples of participants for common allelic variants of the APOE gene.

RESULTS: After adjusting for age, gender, systolic blood pressure, smoking, total serum cholesterol, and other risk factors, we found white participants carrying the epsilon2 and epsilon4 alleles were more likely to have arterio-venous nicking than the epsilon3/epsilon3 homozygotes, with odds ratio (OR) of 1.70 and confidence interval (CI) 95\% (1.03-2.83) for the epsilon2 carriers and OR 1.74 (95\% CI 1.06-2.84) for the epsilon4 carriers. Among white participants without hypertension, the associations remained significant for the epsilon4 carriers (OR 2.32, 95\% CI 1.18-4.57). Whites, normotensive carriers of the epsilon2 allele had significantly narrower retinal arteriolar diameters (adjusted mean arteriolar diameter of 163.5 mum, 95\% CI 160.1-167.0, p=0.03) compared to the epsilon3/epsilon3 homozygotes (167.8 mum, 95\% CI 166.0-169.6). APOE gene polymorphism was not associated with retinopathy, focal narrowing, or retinal venular diameters in white participants. There were insufficient numbers of African-Americans for separate multivariate analysis.

CONCLUSIONS: This study provides little evidence that the APOE gene polymorphism plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of retinal microvascular changes in the general population. In the older white population, APOE epsilon2 and epsilon4 allele carriers were more likely to have arterio-venous nicking. Other retinal signs, however, were not related to APOE gene polymorphism.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Apolipoprotein E2, Apolipoprotein E4, Apolipoproteins E, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gene Frequency, Genotype, Heterozygote, Homozygote, Humans, Male, Microcirculation, Polymorphism, Genetic, Retinal Diseases, Retinal Vessels}, issn = {1090-0535}, author = {Sun, Cong and Tikellis, Gabriella and Liew, Gerald and Klein, Ronald and Larsen, Emily K Marino and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {949, title = {Are microvascular abnormalities in the retina associated with depression symptoms? The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Am J Geriatr Psychiatry}, volume = {15}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 Apr}, pages = {335-43}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Depression has been linked with vascular risk factors and stroke. The authors examined the relationship between retinal microvascular abnormalities and depression symptoms in an elderly population.

METHODS: The Cardiovascular Health Study is a population-based study conducted in four U.S. communities initiated in 1989-1990. A total of 2,420 persons aged 65 years and older were included in the current analyses. During the 1997-1998 examination, retinal photographs were performed and assessed for retinal microvascular abnormalities (retinopathy, focal arteriolar narrowing, arteriovenous nicking, generalized retinal arteriolar narrowing, and generalized retinal venular dilation) according to standardized methods. Depression symptoms were assessed by a modified version of the Centers for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale annually from 1989 through 1997-1998 and was defined as a CES-D score of >9.

RESULTS: Participants with retinal microvascular abnormalities were not more likely to have depression symptoms, with adjusted odds ratio (OR) (95\% confidence intervals) of 1.08 (0.71-1.65) for retinopathy, OR 1.09 (0.71-1.68) for focal arteriolar narrowing, OR 0.85 (0.52-1.40) for arteriovenous nicking, OR 0.97 (0.70-1.34) for generalized arteriolar narrowing, and OR 0.79 (0.56-1.12) for generalized venular dilation. Retinal microvascular abnormalities were not related to depression symptoms in multinomial logistic regression comparing the three top quartiles of the depression CES-D scores with the lowest quartile.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study did not find an association between retinal microvascular abnormalities and depression symptoms in older people.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Body Mass Index, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, Comorbidity, Cross-Sectional Studies, Depression, Female, Fluorescein Angiography, Humans, Male, Microcirculation, Personality Inventory, Retinal Artery Occlusion, Retinal Diseases, Retinal Vein Occlusion, Risk Factors, Statistics as Topic, United States}, issn = {1064-7481}, doi = {10.1097/01.JGP.0000247161.98311.0f}, author = {Sun, Cong and Tikellis, Gabriella and Klein, Ronald and Steffens, David C and Larsen, Emily K Marino and Siscovick, David S and Klein, Barbara E K and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {968, title = {Depressive symptoms and age-related macular degeneration in older people: the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Ophthalmic Epidemiol}, volume = {14}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 May-Jun}, pages = {127-33}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: To examine the association between age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and depressive symptoms.

METHODS: Population-based, cross-sectional study. A total of 2,194 persons aged 69-97 years were included in the current analyses. During the 1997-1998 examination, retinal photography from one randomly selected eye was graded for presence of early and late AMD using a modified Wisconsin AMD by Grading System. Depressive symptoms were assessed via a modified version of the Centers for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale annually from 1989 through 1997-1998. Depressive symptoms were defined as a CES-D score of >9 (top quartile of CES-D score) at the 1997-1998 examination.

RESULTS: There were 338 (15.6\%) individuals with early AMD and 29 (1.3\%) with late AMD. Among them, 368 (16.8\%) persons had depressive symptoms at the 1997-1998 examination. Depressive symptoms were not associated with early AMD (multivariable adjusted odds ratio [OR]: 0.97; 95\% confidence intervals [CI]: 0.69-1.36) or late AMD (OR: 1.15; 95\% CI: 0.38-3.46). Including persons using anti-depressive medications did not alter these associations (OR: 0.98; 95\% CI: 0.74-1.32 for early AMD and OR: 0.97; 95\% CI: 0.35-2.67 for late AMD). There was no association in multinomial logistic regression models of increasing quartiles of the CES-D scores with early or late AMD status.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study did not find an association between early AMD and depressive symptoms in older people.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cross-Sectional Studies, Depressive Disorder, Female, Health Surveys, Humans, Intelligence Tests, Macular Degeneration, Male, Photography, United States}, issn = {0928-6586}, doi = {10.1080/09286580601186742}, author = {Sun, Cong and Tikellis, Gabriella and Klein, Ronald and Steffens, David C and Larsen, Emily K Marino and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {1111, title = {Age-related macular degeneration and risk of coronary heart disease and stroke: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Ophthalmology}, volume = {116}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Oct}, pages = {1913-9}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: To examine the associations of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) with incident coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke in the Cardiovascular Health Study.

DESIGN: Population-based prospective cohort study.

PARTICIPANTS: A total of 1786 white and African-American participants free of CHD or 2228 participants free of stroke, aged 69 to 97 years.

METHODS: AMD was evaluated from photographs taken in 1997 and 1998.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Incident CHD and stroke ascertained using standardized methods.

RESULTS: Of the 1786 persons free of CHD, 303 developed incident CHD over 7 years. Participants with early AMD (n = 277) had a higher cumulative incidence of CHD than participants without early AMD (25.8\% vs. 18.9\%, P = 0.001). By adjusting for age, gender, race, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, hypertension status, fasting glucose, triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, cigarette smoking, pack years of smoking, and C-reactive protein, the presence of early AMD was associated with an increased risk of incident CHD (hazard ratio 1.57; 95\% confidence interval, 1.17-2.22). Late AMD (n = 25) was not associated with incident CHD (hazard ratio 0.78; 95\% confidence interval, 0.25-2.48). Among 2228 persons at risk, 198 developed incident stroke; neither early nor late AMD was associated with incident stroke.

CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests persons with early AMD have a higher risk of CHD but not stroke in a population aged 69 to 97 years. This provides further support that AMD is associated with underlying systemic vascular disease.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Blood Pressure, Cholesterol, LDL, Coronary Disease, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Humans, Incidence, Macular Degeneration, Male, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Stroke, Triglycerides, United States}, issn = {1549-4713}, doi = {10.1016/j.ophtha.2009.03.046}, author = {Sun, Cong and Klein, Ronald and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {1129, title = {Meta-analysis: retinal vessel caliber and risk for coronary heart disease.}, journal = {Ann Intern Med}, volume = {151}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Sep 15}, pages = {404-13}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Retinal vessel caliber may be a novel marker of coronary heart disease (CHD) risk. However, the sex-specific effect, magnitude of association, and effect independent of traditional CHD disease risk factors remain unclear.

PURPOSE: To determine the association between retinal vessel caliber and risk for CHD.

DATA SOURCES: Relevant studies in any language identified through MEDLINE (1950 to June 2009) and EMBASE (1950 to June 2009) databases.

STUDY SELECTION: Studies were included if they examined a general population, measured retinal vessel caliber from retinal photographs, and documented CHD risk factors and incident CHD events.

DATA EXTRACTION: 6 population-based prospective cohort studies provided data for individual participant meta-analysis.

DATA SYNTHESIS: Proportional hazards models, adjusted for traditional CHD risk factors, were constructed for retinal vessel caliber and incident CHD in women and men. Among 22,159 participants who were free of CHD and followed for 5 to 14 years, 2219 (10.0\%) incident CHD events occurred. Retinal vessel caliber changes (wider venules and narrower arterioles) were each associated with an increased risk for CHD in women (pooled multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios, 1.16 [95\% CI, 1.06 to 1.26] per 20-microm increase in venular caliber and 1.17 [CI, 1.07 to 1.28] per 20-microm decrease in arteriolar caliber) but not in men (1.02 [CI, 0.94 to 1.10] per 20-microm increase in venular caliber and 1.02 [CI, 0.95 to 1.10] per 20-microm decrease in arteriolar caliber). Women without hypertension or diabetes had higher hazard ratios.

LIMITATION: Error in the measurement of retinal vessel caliber and Framingham variables was not taken into account.

CONCLUSION: Retinal vessel caliber changes were independently associated with an increased risk for CHD events in women.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Arterioles, Biomarkers, Coronary Disease, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Proportional Hazards Models, Retinal Vessels, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Venules}, issn = {1539-3704}, author = {McGeechan, Kevin and Liew, Gerald and Macaskill, Petra and Irwig, Les and Klein, Ronald and Klein, Barbara E K and Wang, Jie Jin and Mitchell, Paul and Vingerling, Johannes R and Dejong, Paulus T V M and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Breteler, Monique M B and Shaw, Jonathan and Zimmet, Paul and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {1142, title = {Prediction of incident stroke events based on retinal vessel caliber: a systematic review and individual-participant meta-analysis.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, volume = {170}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Dec 01}, pages = {1323-32}, abstract = {

The caliber of the retinal vessels has been shown to be associated with stroke events. However, the consistency and magnitude of association, and the changes in predicted risk independent of traditional risk factors, are unclear. To determine the association between retinal vessel caliber and the risk of stroke events, the investigators combined individual data from 20,798 people, who were free of stroke at baseline, in 6 cohort studies identified from a search of the Medline (National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland) and EMBASE (Elsevier B.V., Amsterdam, the Netherlands) databases. During follow-up of 5-12 years, 945 (4.5\%) incident stroke events were recorded. Wider retinal venular caliber predicted stroke (pooled hazard ratio = 1.15, 95\% confidence interval: 1.05, 1.25 per 20-micron increase in caliber), but the caliber of retinal arterioles was not associated with stroke (pooled hazard ratio = 1.00, 95\% confidence interval: 0.92, 1.08). There was weak evidence of heterogeneity in the hazard ratio for retinal venular caliber, which may be attributable to differences in follow-up strategies across studies. Inclusion of retinal venular caliber in prediction models containing traditional stroke risk factors reassigned 10.1\% of people at intermediate risk into different, mostly lower, risk categories.

}, keywords = {Aged, Fluorescein Angiography, Humans, Middle Aged, Predictive Value of Tests, Proportional Hazards Models, Retinal Artery, Retinal Vein, Retinal Vessels, Risk Factors, Stroke}, issn = {1476-6256}, doi = {10.1093/aje/kwp306}, author = {McGeechan, Kevin and Liew, Gerald and Macaskill, Petra and Irwig, Les and Klein, Ronald and Klein, Barbara E K and Wang, Jie Jin and Mitchell, Paul and Vingerling, Johannes R and de Jong, Paulus T V M and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Breteler, Monique M B and Shaw, Jonathan and Zimmet, Paul and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {1221, title = {Biological, clinical and population relevance of 95 loci for blood lipids.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {466}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Aug 05}, pages = {707-13}, abstract = {

Plasma concentrations of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides are among the most important risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD) and are targets for therapeutic intervention. We screened the genome for common variants associated with plasma lipids in >100,000 individuals of European ancestry. Here we report 95 significantly associated loci (P < 5 x 10(-8)), with 59 showing genome-wide significant association with lipid traits for the first time. The newly reported associations include single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) near known lipid regulators (for example, CYP7A1, NPC1L1 and SCARB1) as well as in scores of loci not previously implicated in lipoprotein metabolism. The 95 loci contribute not only to normal variation in lipid traits but also to extreme lipid phenotypes and have an impact on lipid traits in three non-European populations (East Asians, South Asians and African Americans). Our results identify several novel loci associated with plasma lipids that are also associated with CAD. Finally, we validated three of the novel genes-GALNT2, PPP1R3B and TTC39B-with experiments in mouse models. Taken together, our findings provide the foundation to develop a broader biological understanding of lipoprotein metabolism and to identify new therapeutic opportunities for the prevention of CAD.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Animals, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, Coronary Artery Disease, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Lipid Metabolism, Lipids, Liver, Male, Mice, N-Acetylgalactosaminyltransferases, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Protein Phosphatase 1, Reproducibility of Results, Triglycerides}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature09270}, author = {Teslovich, Tanya M and Musunuru, Kiran and Smith, Albert V and Edmondson, Andrew C and Stylianou, Ioannis M and Koseki, Masahiro and Pirruccello, James P and Ripatti, Samuli and Chasman, Daniel I and Willer, Cristen J and Johansen, Christopher T and Fouchier, Sigrid W and Isaacs, Aaron and Peloso, Gina M and Barbalic, Maja and Ricketts, Sally L and Bis, Joshua C and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Feitosa, Mary F and Chambers, John and Orho-Melander, Marju and Melander, Olle and Johnson, Toby and Li, Xiaohui and Guo, Xiuqing and Li, Mingyao and Shin Cho, Yoon and Jin Go, Min and Jin Kim, Young and Lee, Jong-Young and Park, Taesung and Kim, Kyunga and Sim, Xueling and Twee-Hee Ong, Rick and Croteau-Chonka, Damien C and Lange, Leslie A and Smith, Joshua D and Song, Kijoung and Hua Zhao, Jing and Yuan, Xin and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lamina, Claudia and Ziegler, Andreas and Zhang, Weihua and Zee, Robert Y L and Wright, Alan F and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Wilson, James F and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wichmann, H-Erich and Whitfield, John B and Waterworth, Dawn M and Wareham, Nicholas J and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Vollenweider, Peter and Voight, Benjamin F and Vitart, Veronique and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Uda, Manuela and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Thompson, John R and Tanaka, Toshiko and Surakka, Ida and Stringham, Heather M and Spector, Tim D and Soranzo, Nicole and Smit, Johannes H and Sinisalo, Juha and Silander, Kaisa and Sijbrands, Eric J G and Scuteri, Angelo and Scott, James and Schlessinger, David and Sanna, Serena and Salomaa, Veikko and Saharinen, Juha and Sabatti, Chiara and Ruokonen, Aimo and Rudan, Igor and Rose, Lynda M and Roberts, Robert and Rieder, Mark and Psaty, Bruce M and Pramstaller, Peter P and Pichler, Irene and Perola, Markus and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Pedersen, Nancy L and Pattaro, Cristian and Parker, Alex N and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Oostra, Ben A and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Nieminen, Markku S and Nickerson, Deborah A and Montgomery, Grant W and Meitinger, Thomas and McPherson, Ruth and McCarthy, Mark I and McArdle, Wendy and Masson, David and Martin, Nicholas G and Marroni, Fabio and Mangino, Massimo and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Lucas, Gavin and Luben, Robert and Loos, Ruth J F and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Lettre, Guillaume and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lakatta, Edward G and Laaksonen, Reijo and Kyvik, Kirsten O and Kronenberg, Florian and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kaprio, Jaakko and Kaplan, Lee M and Johansson, Asa and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Janssens, A Cecile J W and Ingelsson, Erik and Igl, Wilmar and Kees Hovingh, G and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Hofman, Albert and Hicks, Andrew A and Hengstenberg, Christian and Heid, Iris M and Hayward, Caroline and Havulinna, Aki S and Hastie, Nicholas D and Harris, Tamara B and Haritunians, Talin and Hall, Alistair S and Gyllensten, Ulf and Guiducci, Candace and Groop, Leif C and Gonzalez, Elena and Gieger, Christian and Freimer, Nelson B and Ferrucci, Luigi and Erdmann, Jeanette and Elliott, Paul and Ejebe, Kenechi G and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Dominiczak, Anna F and Demissie, Serkalem and Deloukas, Panagiotis and de Geus, Eco J C and de Faire, Ulf and Crawford, Gabriel and Collins, Francis S and Chen, Yii-der I and Caulfield, Mark J and Campbell, Harry and Burtt, Noel P and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Boomsma, Dorret I and Boekholdt, S Matthijs and Bergman, Richard N and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Bandinelli, Stefania and Ballantyne, Christie M and Assimes, Themistocles L and Quertermous, Thomas and Altshuler, David and Seielstad, Mark and Wong, Tien Y and Tai, E-Shyong and Feranil, Alan B and Kuzawa, Christopher W and Adair, Linda S and Taylor, Herman A and Borecki, Ingrid B and Gabriel, Stacey B and Wilson, James G and Holm, Hilma and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Krauss, Ronald M and Mohlke, Karen L and Ordovas, Jose M and Munroe, Patricia B and Kooner, Jaspal S and Tall, Alan R and Hegele, Robert A and Kastelein, John J P and Schadt, Eric E and Rotter, Jerome I and Boerwinkle, Eric and Strachan, David P and Mooser, Vincent and Stefansson, Kari and Reilly, Muredach P and Samani, Nilesh J and Schunkert, Heribert and Cupples, L Adrienne and Sandhu, Manjinder S and Ridker, Paul M and Rader, Daniel J and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Peltonen, Leena and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Boehnke, Michael and Kathiresan, Sekar} } @article {1243, title = {Four novel Loci (19q13, 6q24, 12q24, and 5q14) influence the microcirculation in vivo.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {6}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Oct 28}, pages = {e1001184}, abstract = {

There is increasing evidence that the microcirculation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. Changes in retinal vascular caliber reflect early microvascular disease and predict incident cardiovascular events. We performed a genome-wide association study to identify genetic variants associated with retinal vascular caliber. We analyzed data from four population-based discovery cohorts with 15,358 unrelated Caucasian individuals, who are members of the Cohort for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium, and replicated findings in four independent Caucasian cohorts (n  =  6,652). All participants had retinal photography and retinal arteriolar and venular caliber measured from computer software. In the discovery cohorts, 179 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) spread across five loci were significantly associated (p<5.0{\texttimes}10(-8)) with retinal venular caliber, but none showed association with arteriolar caliber. Collectively, these five loci explain 1.0\%-3.2\% of the variation in retinal venular caliber. Four out of these five loci were confirmed in independent replication samples. In the combined analyses, the top SNPs at each locus were: rs2287921 (19q13; p  =  1.61{\texttimes}10(-25), within the RASIP1 locus), rs225717 (6q24; p = 1.25{\texttimes}10(-16), adjacent to the VTA1 and NMBR loci), rs10774625 (12q24; p  =  2.15{\texttimes}10(-13), in the region of ATXN2,SH2B3 and PTPN11 loci), and rs17421627 (5q14; p = 7.32{\texttimes}10(-16), adjacent to the MEF2C locus). In two independent samples, locus 12q24 was also associated with coronary heart disease and hypertension. Our population-based genome-wide association study demonstrates four novel loci associated with retinal venular caliber, an endophenotype of the microcirculation associated with clinical cardiovascular disease. These data provide further insights into the contribution and biological mechanisms of microcirculatory changes that underlie cardiovascular disease.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Child, Child, Preschool, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 12, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 19, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 5, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 6, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Microcirculation, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Retinal Vessels, Young Adult}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1001184}, author = {Ikram, M Kamran and Sim, Xueling and Xueling, Sim and Jensen, Richard A and Cotch, Mary Frances and Hewitt, Alex W and Ikram, M Arfan and Wang, Jie Jin and Klein, Ronald and Klein, Barbara E K and Breteler, Monique M B and Cheung, Ning and Liew, Gerald and Mitchell, Paul and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Hofman, Albert and de Jong, Paulus T V M and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Kao, Linda and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Smith, Albert Vernon and Glazer, Nicole L and Lumley, Thomas and McKnight, Barbara and Psaty, Bruce M and Jonasson, Fridbert and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Aspelund, Thor and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Taylor, Kent D and Li, Xiaohui and Iyengar, Sudha K and Xi, Quansheng and Sivakumaran, Theru A and Mackey, David A and Macgregor, Stuart and Martin, Nicholas G and Young, Terri L and Bis, Josh C and Wiggins, Kerri L and Heckbert, Susan R and Hammond, Christopher J and Andrew, Toby and Fahy, Samantha and Attia, John and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Scott, Rodney J and Islam, F M Amirul and Rotter, Jerome I and McAuley, Annie K and Boerwinkle, Eric and Tai, E Shyong and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Siscovick, David S and Vingerling, Johannes R and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {1567, title = {Candidate gene association study for diabetic retinopathy in persons with type 2 diabetes: the Candidate gene Association Resource (CARe).}, journal = {Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci}, volume = {52}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep 29}, pages = {7593-602}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: To investigate whether variants in cardiovascular candidate genes, some of which have been previously associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D), diabetic retinopathy (DR), and diabetic nephropathy (DN), are associated with DR in the Candidate gene Association Resource (CARe).

METHODS: Persons with T2D who were enrolled in the study (n = 2691) had fundus photography and genotyping of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 2000 candidate genes. Two case definitions were investigated: Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) grades >= 14 and >= 30. The χ{\texttwosuperior} analyses for each CARe cohort were combined by Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel (CMH) pooling of odds ratios (ORs) and corrected for multiple hypothesis testing. Logistic regression was performed with adjustment for other DR risk factors. Results from replication in independent cohorts were analyzed with CMH meta-analysis methods.

RESULTS: Among 39 genes previously associated with DR, DN, or T2D, three SNPs in P-selectin (SELP) were associated with DR. The strongest association was to rs6128 (OR = 0.43, P = 0.0001, after Bonferroni correction). These associations remained significant after adjustment for DR risk factors. Among other genes examined, several variants were associated with DR with significant P values, including rs6856425 tagging α-l-iduronidase (IDUA) (P = 2.1 {\texttimes} 10(-5), after Bonferroni correction). However, replication in independent cohorts did not reveal study-wide significant effects. The P values after replication were 0.55 and 0.10 for rs6128 and rs6856425, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: Genes associated with DN, T2D, and vascular diseases do not appear to be consistently associated with DR. A few genetic variants associated with DR, particularly those in SELP and near IDUA, should be investigated in additional DR cohorts.

}, keywords = {Cardiovascular Diseases, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Diabetic Nephropathies, Diabetic Retinopathy, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Iduronidase, Odds Ratio, P-Selectin, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1552-5783}, doi = {10.1167/iovs.11-7510}, author = {Sobrin, Lucia and Green, Todd and Sim, Xueling and Jensen, Richard A and Tai, E Shyong and Tay, Wan Ting and Wang, Jie Jin and Mitchell, Paul and Sandholm, Niina and Liu, Yiyuan and Hietala, Kustaa and Iyengar, Sudha K and Brooks, Matthew and Buraczynska, Monika and Van Zuydam, Natalie and Smith, Albert V and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Doney, Alex S F and Morris, Andrew D and Leese, Graham P and Palmer, Colin N A and Swaroop, Anand and Taylor, Herman A and Wilson, James G and Penman, Alan and Chen, Ching J and Groop, Per-Henrik and Saw, Seang-Mei and Aung, Tin and Klein, Barbara E and Rotter, Jerome I and Siscovick, David S and Cotch, Mary Frances and Klein, Ronald and Daly, Mark J and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {1325, title = {Genetic variants in novel pathways influence blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {478}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep 11}, pages = {103-9}, abstract = {

Blood pressure is a heritable trait influenced by several biological pathways and responsive to environmental stimuli. Over one billion people worldwide have hypertension (>=140 mm Hg systolic blood pressure or >=90 mm Hg diastolic blood pressure). Even small increments in blood pressure are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. This genome-wide association study of systolic and diastolic blood pressure, which used a multi-stage design in 200,000 individuals of European descent, identified sixteen novel loci: six of these loci contain genes previously known or suspected to regulate blood pressure (GUCY1A3-GUCY1B3, NPR3-C5orf23, ADM, FURIN-FES, GOSR2, GNAS-EDN3); the other ten provide new clues to blood pressure physiology. A genetic risk score based on 29 genome-wide significant variants was associated with hypertension, left ventricular wall thickness, stroke and coronary artery disease, but not kidney disease or kidney function. We also observed associations with blood pressure in East Asian, South Asian and African ancestry individuals. Our findings provide new insights into the genetics and biology of blood pressure, and suggest potential novel therapeutic pathways for cardiovascular disease prevention.

}, keywords = {Africa, Asia, Blood Pressure, Cardiovascular Diseases, Coronary Artery Disease, Europe, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Kidney Diseases, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Stroke}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature10405}, author = {Ehret, Georg B and Munroe, Patricia B and Rice, Kenneth M and Bochud, Murielle and Johnson, Andrew D and Chasman, Daniel I and Smith, Albert V and Tobin, Martin D and Verwoert, Germaine C and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Pihur, Vasyl and Vollenweider, Peter and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Amin, Najaf and Bragg-Gresham, Jennifer L and Teumer, Alexander and Glazer, Nicole L and Launer, Lenore and Zhao, Jing Hua and Aulchenko, Yurii and Heath, Simon and S{\~o}ber, Siim and Parsa, Afshin and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Arora, Pankaj and Dehghan, Abbas and Zhang, Feng and Lucas, Gavin and Hicks, Andrew A and Jackson, Anne U and Peden, John F and Tanaka, Toshiko and Wild, Sarah H and Rudan, Igor and Igl, Wilmar and Milaneschi, Yuri and Parker, Alex N and Fava, Cristiano and Chambers, John C and Fox, Ervin R and Kumari, Meena and Go, Min Jin and van der Harst, Pim and Kao, Wen Hong Linda and Sj{\"o}gren, Marketa and Vinay, D G and Alexander, Myriam and Tabara, Yasuharu and Shaw-Hawkins, Sue and Whincup, Peter H and Liu, Yongmei and Shi, Gang and Kuusisto, Johanna and Tayo, Bamidele and Seielstad, Mark and Sim, Xueling and Nguyen, Khanh-Dung Hoang and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Matullo, Giuseppe and Wu, Ying and Gaunt, Tom R and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and Cooper, Matthew N and Platou, Carl G P and Org, Elin and Hardy, Rebecca and Dahgam, Santosh and Palmen, Jutta and Vitart, Veronique and Braund, Peter S and Kuznetsova, Tatiana and Uiterwaal, Cuno S P M and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Palmas, Walter and Campbell, Harry and Ludwig, Barbara and Tomaszewski, Maciej and Tzoulaki, Ioanna and Palmer, Nicholette D and Aspelund, Thor and Garcia, Melissa and Chang, Yen-Pei C and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Steinle, Nanette I and Grobbee, Diederick E and Arking, Dan E and Kardia, Sharon L and Morrison, Alanna C and Hernandez, Dena and Najjar, Samer and McArdle, Wendy L and Hadley, David and Brown, Morris J and Connell, John M and Hingorani, Aroon D and Day, Ian N M and Lawlor, Debbie A and Beilby, John P and Lawrence, Robert W and Clarke, Robert and Hopewell, Jemma C and Ongen, Halit and Dreisbach, Albert W and Li, Yali and Young, J Hunter and Bis, Joshua C and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Viikari, Jorma and Adair, Linda S and Lee, Nanette R and Chen, Ming-Huei and Olden, Matthias and Pattaro, Cristian and Bolton, Judith A Hoffman and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Bergmann, Sven and Mooser, Vincent and Chaturvedi, Nish and Frayling, Timothy M and Islam, Muhammad and Jafar, Tazeen H and Erdmann, Jeanette and Kulkarni, Smita R and Bornstein, Stefan R and Gr{\"a}ssler, J{\"u}rgen and Groop, Leif and Voight, Benjamin F and Kettunen, Johannes and Howard, Philip and Taylor, Andrew and Guarrera, Simonetta and Ricceri, Fulvio and Emilsson, Valur and Plump, Andrew and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Weder, Alan B and Hunt, Steven C and Sun, Yan V and Bergman, Richard N and Collins, Francis S and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Scott, Laura J and Stringham, Heather M and Peltonen, Leena and Perola, Markus and Vartiainen, Erkki and Brand, Stefan-Martin and Staessen, Jan A and Wang, Thomas J and Burton, Paul R and Soler Artigas, Maria and Dong, Yanbin and Snieder, Harold and Wang, Xiaoling and Zhu, Haidong and Lohman, Kurt K and Rudock, Megan E and Heckbert, Susan R and Smith, Nicholas L and Wiggins, Kerri L and Doumatey, Ayo and Shriner, Daniel and Veldre, Gudrun and Viigimaa, Margus and Kinra, Sanjay and Prabhakaran, Dorairaj and Tripathy, Vikal and Langefeld, Carl D and Rosengren, Annika and Thelle, Dag S and Corsi, Anna Maria and Singleton, Andrew and Forrester, Terrence and Hilton, Gina and McKenzie, Colin A and Salako, Tunde and Iwai, Naoharu and Kita, Yoshikuni and Ogihara, Toshio and Ohkubo, Takayoshi and Okamura, Tomonori and Ueshima, Hirotsugu and Umemura, Satoshi and Eyheramendy, Susana and Meitinger, Thomas and Wichmann, H-Erich and Cho, Yoon Shin and Kim, Hyung-Lae and Lee, Jong-Young and Scott, James and Sehmi, Joban S and Zhang, Weihua and Hedblad, Bo and Nilsson, Peter and Smith, George Davey and Wong, Andrew and Narisu, Narisu and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Raffel, Leslie J and Yao, Jie and Kathiresan, Sekar and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Schwartz, Stephen M and Ikram, M Arfan and Longstreth, W T and Mosley, Thomas H and Seshadri, Sudha and Shrine, Nick R G and Wain, Louise V and Morken, Mario A and Swift, Amy J and Laitinen, Jaana and Prokopenko, Inga and Zitting, Paavo and Cooper, Jackie A and Humphries, Steve E and Danesh, John and Rasheed, Asif and Goel, Anuj and Hamsten, Anders and Watkins, Hugh and Bakker, Stephan J L and van Gilst, Wiek H and Janipalli, Charles S and Mani, K Radha and Yajnik, Chittaranjan S and Hofman, Albert and Mattace-Raso, Francesco U S and Oostra, Ben A and Demirkan, Ayse and Isaacs, Aaron and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Lakatta, Edward G and Orr{\`u}, Marco and Scuteri, Angelo and Ala-Korpela, Mika and Kangas, Antti J and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Soininen, Pasi and Tukiainen, Taru and W{\"u}rtz, Peter and Ong, Rick Twee-Hee and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Kroemer, Heyo K and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Galan, Pilar and Hercberg, Serge and Lathrop, Mark and Zelenika, Diana and Deloukas, Panos and Mangino, Massimo and Spector, Tim D and Zhai, Guangju and Meschia, James F and Nalls, Michael A and Sharma, Pankaj and Terzic, Janos and Kumar, M V Kranthi and Denniff, Matthew and Zukowska-Szczechowska, Ewa and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Fowkes, F Gerald R and Charchar, Fadi J and Schwarz, Peter E H and Hayward, Caroline and Guo, Xiuqing and Rotimi, Charles and Bots, Michiel L and Brand, Eva and Samani, Nilesh J and Polasek, Ozren and Talmud, Philippa J and Nyberg, Fredrik and Kuh, Diana and Laan, Maris and Hveem, Kristian and Palmer, Lyle J and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and Casas, Juan P and Mohlke, Karen L and Vineis, Paolo and Raitakari, Olli and Ganesh, Santhi K and Wong, Tien Y and Tai, E Shyong and Cooper, Richard S and Laakso, Markku and Rao, Dabeeru C and Harris, Tamara B and Morris, Richard W and Dominiczak, Anna F and Kivimaki, Mika and Marmot, Michael G and Miki, Tetsuro and Saleheen, Danish and Chandak, Giriraj R and Coresh, Josef and Navis, Gerjan and Salomaa, Veikko and Han, Bok-Ghee and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Kooner, Jaspal S and Melander, Olle and Ridker, Paul M and Bandinelli, Stefania and Gyllensten, Ulf B and Wright, Alan F and Wilson, James F and Ferrucci, Luigi and Farrall, Martin and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Pramstaller, Peter P and Elosua, Roberto and Soranzo, Nicole and Sijbrands, Eric J G and Altshuler, David and Loos, Ruth J F and Shuldiner, Alan R and Gieger, Christian and Meneton, Pierre and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Wareham, Nicholas J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Rotter, Jerome I and Rettig, Rainer and Uda, Manuela and Strachan, David P and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Beckmann, Jacques S and Boerwinkle, Eric and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Boehnke, Michael and Larson, Martin G and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Psaty, Bruce M and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Elliott, Paul and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Levy, Daniel and Caulfield, Mark J and Johnson, Toby} } @article {1378, title = {Novel loci for adiponectin levels and their influence on type 2 diabetes and metabolic traits: a multi-ethnic meta-analysis of 45,891 individuals.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {8}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {e1002607}, abstract = {

Circulating levels of adiponectin, a hormone produced predominantly by adipocytes, are highly heritable and are inversely associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) and other metabolic traits. We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in 39,883 individuals of European ancestry to identify genes associated with metabolic disease. We identified 8 novel loci associated with adiponectin levels and confirmed 2 previously reported loci (P = 4.5{\texttimes}10(-8)-1.2{\texttimes}10(-43)). Using a novel method to combine data across ethnicities (N = 4,232 African Americans, N = 1,776 Asians, and N = 29,347 Europeans), we identified two additional novel loci. Expression analyses of 436 human adipocyte samples revealed that mRNA levels of 18 genes at candidate regions were associated with adiponectin concentrations after accounting for multiple testing (p<3{\texttimes}10(-4)). We next developed a multi-SNP genotypic risk score to test the association of adiponectin decreasing risk alleles on metabolic traits and diseases using consortia-level meta-analytic data. This risk score was associated with increased risk of T2D (p = 4.3{\texttimes}10(-3), n = 22,044), increased triglycerides (p = 2.6{\texttimes}10(-14), n = 93,440), increased waist-to-hip ratio (p = 1.8{\texttimes}10(-5), n = 77,167), increased glucose two hours post oral glucose tolerance testing (p = 4.4{\texttimes}10(-3), n = 15,234), increased fasting insulin (p = 0.015, n = 48,238), but with lower in HDL-cholesterol concentrations (p = 4.5{\texttimes}10(-13), n = 96,748) and decreased BMI (p = 1.4{\texttimes}10(-4), n = 121,335). These findings identify novel genetic determinants of adiponectin levels, which, taken together, influence risk of T2D and markers of insulin resistance.

}, keywords = {Adiponectin, African Americans, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Cholesterol, HDL, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gene Expression, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glucose Tolerance Test, Humans, Insulin Resistance, Male, Metabolic Networks and Pathways, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Waist-Hip Ratio}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1002607}, author = {Dastani, Zari and Hivert, Marie-France and Timpson, Nicholas and Perry, John R B and Yuan, Xin and Scott, Robert A and Henneman, Peter and Heid, Iris M and Kizer, Jorge R and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Fuchsberger, Christian and Tanaka, Toshiko and Morris, Andrew P and Small, Kerrin and Isaacs, Aaron and Beekman, Marian and Coassin, Stefan and Lohman, Kurt and Qi, Lu and Kanoni, Stavroula and Pankow, James S and Uh, Hae-Won and Wu, Ying and Bidulescu, Aurelian and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Greenwood, Celia M T and Ladouceur, Martin and Grimsby, Jonna and Manning, Alisa K and Liu, Ching-Ti and Kooner, Jaspal and Mooser, Vincent E and Vollenweider, Peter and Kapur, Karen A and Chambers, John and Wareham, Nicholas J and Langenberg, Claudia and Frants, Rune and Willems-Vandijk, Ko and Oostra, Ben A and Willems, Sara M and Lamina, Claudia and Winkler, Thomas W and Psaty, Bruce M and Tracy, Russell P and Brody, Jennifer and Chen, Ida and Viikari, Jorma and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Pramstaller, Peter P and Evans, David M and St Pourcain, Beate and Sattar, Naveed and Wood, Andrew R and Bandinelli, Stefania and Carlson, Olga D and Egan, Josephine M and B{\"o}hringer, Stefan and van Heemst, Diana and Kedenko, Lyudmyla and Kristiansson, Kati and Nuotio, Marja-Liisa and Loo, Britt-Marie and Harris, Tamara and Garcia, Melissa and Kanaya, Alka and Haun, Margot and Klopp, Norman and Wichmann, H-Erich and Deloukas, Panos and Katsareli, Efi and Couper, David J and Duncan, Bruce B and Kloppenburg, Margreet and Adair, Linda S and Borja, Judith B and Wilson, James G and Musani, Solomon and Guo, Xiuqing and Johnson, Toby and Semple, Robert and Teslovich, Tanya M and Allison, Matthew A and Redline, Susan and Buxbaum, Sarah G and Mohlke, Karen L and Meulenbelt, Ingrid and Ballantyne, Christie M and Dedoussis, George V and Hu, Frank B and Liu, Yongmei and Paulweber, Bernhard and Spector, Timothy D and Slagboom, P Eline and Ferrucci, Luigi and Jula, Antti and Perola, Markus and Raitakari, Olli and Florez, Jose C and Salomaa, Veikko and Eriksson, Johan G and Frayling, Timothy M and Hicks, Andrew A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Smith, George Davey and Siscovick, David S and Kronenberg, Florian and van Duijn, Cornelia and Loos, Ruth J F and Waterworth, Dawn M and Meigs, James B and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Richards, J Brent and Voight, Benjamin F and Scott, Laura J and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Dina, Christian and Welch, Ryan P and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Huth, Cornelia and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and McCulloch, Laura J and Ferreira, Teresa and Grallert, Harald and Amin, Najaf and Wu, Guanming and Willer, Cristen J and Raychaudhuri, Soumya and McCarroll, Steve A and Hofmann, Oliver M and Segr{\`e}, Ayellet V and van Hoek, Mandy and Navarro, Pau and Ardlie, Kristin and Balkau, Beverley and Benediktsson, Rafn and Bennett, Amanda J and Blagieva, Roza and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Bostr{\"o}m, Kristina Bengtsson and Bravenboer, Bert and Bumpstead, Suzannah and Burtt, Noel P and Charpentier, Guillaume and Chines, Peter S and Cornelis, Marilyn and Crawford, Gabe and Doney, Alex S F and Elliott, Katherine S and Elliott, Amanda L and Erdos, Michael R and Fox, Caroline S and Franklin, Christopher S and Ganser, Martha and Gieger, Christian and Grarup, Niels and Green, Todd and Griffin, Simon and Groves, Christopher J and Guiducci, Candace and Hadjadj, Samy and Hassanali, Neelam and Herder, Christian and Isomaa, Bo and Jackson, Anne U and Johnson, Paul R V and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Kao, Wen H L and Kong, Augustine and Kraft, Peter and Kuusisto, Johanna and Lauritzen, Torsten and Li, Man and Lieverse, Aloysius and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Marre, Michel and Meitinger, Thomas and Midthjell, Kristian and Morken, Mario A and Narisu, Narisu and Nilsson, Peter and Owen, Katharine R and Payne, Felicity and Petersen, Ann-Kristin and Platou, Carl and Proen{\c c}a, Christine and Prokopenko, Inga and Rathmann, Wolfgang and Rayner, N William and Robertson, Neil R and Rocheleau, Ghislain and Roden, Michael and Sampson, Michael J and Saxena, Richa and Shields, Beverley M and Shrader, Peter and Sigurdsson, Gunnar and Spars{\o}, Thomas and Strassburger, Klaus and Stringham, Heather M and Sun, Qi and Swift, Amy J and Thorand, Barbara and Tichet, Jean and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and van Dam, Rob M and van Haeften, Timon W and van Herpt, Thijs and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Walters, G Bragi and Weedon, Michael N and Wijmenga, Cisca and Witteman, Jacqueline and Bergman, Richard N and Cauchi, Stephane and Collins, Francis S and Gloyn, Anna L and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hansen, Torben and Hide, Winston A and Hitman, Graham A and Hofman, Albert and Hunter, David J and Hveem, Kristian and Laakso, Markku and Morris, Andrew D and Palmer, Colin N A and Rudan, Igor and Sijbrands, Eric and Stein, Lincoln D and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uitterlinden, Andre and Walker, Mark and Watanabe, Richard M and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Boehm, Bernhard O and Campbell, Harry and Daly, Mark J and Hattersley, Andrew T and Pedersen, Oluf and Barroso, In{\^e}s and Groop, Leif and Sladek, Rob and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Wilson, James F and Illig, Thomas and Froguel, Philippe and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Stefansson, Kari and Altshuler, David and Boehnke, Michael and McCarthy, Mark I and Soranzo, Nicole and Wheeler, Eleanor and Glazer, Nicole L and Bouatia-Naji, Nabila and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Randall, Joshua and Elliott, Paul and Rybin, Denis and Dehghan, Abbas and Hottenga, Jouke Jan and Song, Kijoung and Goel, Anuj and Lajunen, Taina and Doney, Alex and Cavalcanti-Proen{\c c}a, Christine and Kumari, Meena and Timpson, Nicholas J and Zabena, Carina and Ingelsson, Erik and An, Ping and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Elliott, Amanda and McCarroll, Steven A and Roccasecca, Rosa Maria and Pattou, Fran{\c c}ois and Sethupathy, Praveen and Ariyurek, Yavuz and Barter, Philip and Beilby, John P and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Bergmann, Sven and Bochud, Murielle and Bonnefond, Am{\'e}lie and Borch-Johnsen, Knut and B{\"o}ttcher, Yvonne and Brunner, Eric and Bumpstead, Suzannah J and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Chines, Peter and Clarke, Robert and Coin, Lachlan J M and Cooper, Matthew N and Crisponi, Laura and Day, Ian N M and de Geus, Eco J C and Delplanque, Jerome and Fedson, Annette C and Fischer-Rosinsky, Antje and Forouhi, Nita G and Franzosi, Maria Grazia and Galan, Pilar and Goodarzi, Mark O and Graessler, J{\"u}rgen and Grundy, Scott and Gwilliam, Rhian and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Hammond, Naomi and Han, Xijing and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Hayward, Caroline and Heath, Simon C and Hercberg, Serge and Hillman, David R and Hingorani, Aroon D and Hui, Jennie and Hung, Joe and Kaakinen, Marika and Kaprio, Jaakko and Kesaniemi, Y Antero and Kivimaki, Mika and Knight, Beatrice and Koskinen, Seppo and Kovacs, Peter and Kyvik, Kirsten Ohm and Lathrop, G Mark and Lawlor, Debbie A and Le Bacquer, Olivier and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Li, Yun and Mahley, Robert and Mangino, Massimo and Mart{\'\i}nez-Larrad, Mar{\'\i}a Teresa and McAteer, Jarred B and McPherson, Ruth and Meisinger, Christa and Melzer, David and Meyre, David and Mitchell, Braxton D and Mukherjee, Sutapa and Naitza, Silvia and Neville, Matthew J and Orr{\`u}, Marco and Pakyz, Ruth and Paolisso, Giuseppe and Pattaro, Cristian and Pearson, Daniel and Peden, John F and Pedersen, Nancy L and Pfeiffer, Andreas F H and Pichler, Irene and Polasek, Ozren and Posthuma, Danielle and Potter, Simon C and Pouta, Anneli and Province, Michael A and Rayner, Nigel W and Rice, Kenneth and Ripatti, Samuli and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rolandsson, Olov and Sandbaek, Annelli and Sandhu, Manjinder and Sanna, Serena and Sayer, Avan Aihie and Scheet, Paul and Seedorf, Udo and Sharp, Stephen J and Shields, Beverley and Sigur{\dh}sson, Gunnar and Sijbrands, Eric J G and Silveira, Angela and Simpson, Laila and Singleton, Andrew and Smith, Nicholas L and Sovio, Ulla and Swift, Amy and Syddall, Holly and Syv{\"a}nen, Ann-Christine and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Dijk, Ko Willems and Varma, Dhiraj and Visvikis-Siest, Sophie and Vitart, Veronique and Vogelzangs, Nicole and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Wagner, Peter J and Walley, Andrew and Ward, Kim L and Watkins, Hugh and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Witteman, Jaqueline C M and Yarnell, John W G and Zelenika, Diana and Zethelius, Bj{\"o}rn and Zhai, Guangju and Zhao, Jing Hua and Zillikens, M Carola and Borecki, Ingrid B and Meneton, Pierre and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Nathan, David M and Williams, Gordon H and Silander, Kaisa and Bornstein, Stefan R and Schwarz, Peter and Spranger, Joachim and Karpe, Fredrik and Shuldiner, Alan R and Cooper, Cyrus and Serrano-R{\'\i}os, Manuel and Lind, Lars and Palmer, Lyle J and Hu, Frank B and Franks, Paul W and Ebrahim, Shah and Marmot, Michael and Kao, W H Linda and Pramstaller, Peter Paul and Wright, Alan F and Stumvoll, Michael and Hamsten, Anders and Buchanan, Thomas A and Valle, Timo T and Rotter, Jerome I and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Boomsma, Dorret I and Cao, Antonio and Scuteri, Angelo and Schlessinger, David and Uda, Manuela and Ruokonen, Aimo and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Peltonen, Leena and Mooser, Vincent and Sladek, Robert and Musunuru, Kiran and Smith, Albert V and Edmondson, Andrew C and Stylianou, Ioannis M and Koseki, Masahiro and Pirruccello, James P and Chasman, Daniel I and Johansen, Christopher T and Fouchier, Sigrid W and Peloso, Gina M and Barbalic, Maja and Ricketts, Sally L and Bis, Joshua C and Feitosa, Mary F and Orho-Melander, Marju and Melander, Olle and Li, Xiaohui and Li, Mingyao and Cho, Yoon Shin and Go, Min Jin and Kim, Young Jin and Lee, Jong-Young and Park, Taesung and Kim, Kyunga and Sim, Xueling and Ong, Rick Twee-Hee and Croteau-Chonka, Damien C and Lange, Leslie A and Smith, Joshua D and Ziegler, Andreas and Zhang, Weihua and Zee, Robert Y L and Whitfield, John B and Thompson, John R and Surakka, Ida and Spector, Tim D and Smit, Johannes H and Sinisalo, Juha and Scott, James and Saharinen, Juha and Sabatti, Chiara and Rose, Lynda M and Roberts, Robert and Rieder, Mark and Parker, Alex N and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Nieminen, Markku S and Nickerson, Deborah A and Montgomery, Grant W and McArdle, Wendy and Masson, David and Martin, Nicholas G and Marroni, Fabio and Lucas, Gavin and Luben, Robert and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Lettre, Guillaume and Launer, Lenore J and Lakatta, Edward G and Laaksonen, Reijo and Kyvik, Kirsten O and K{\"o}nig, Inke R and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Kaplan, Lee M and Johansson, Asa and Janssens, A Cecile J W and Igl, Wilmar and Hovingh, G Kees and Hengstenberg, Christian and Havulinna, Aki S and Hastie, Nicholas D and Harris, Tamara B and Haritunians, Talin and Hall, Alistair S and Groop, Leif C and Gonzalez, Elena and Freimer, Nelson B and Erdmann, Jeanette and Ejebe, Kenechi G and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Dominiczak, Anna F and Demissie, Serkalem and Deloukas, Panagiotis and de Faire, Ulf and Crawford, Gabriel and Chen, Yii-der I and Caulfield, Mark J and Boekholdt, S Matthijs and Assimes, Themistocles L and Quertermous, Thomas and Seielstad, Mark and Wong, Tien Y and Tai, E-Shyong and Feranil, Alan B and Kuzawa, Christopher W and Taylor, Herman A and Gabriel, Stacey B and Holm, Hilma and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Krauss, Ronald M and Ordovas, Jose M and Munroe, Patricia B and Kooner, Jaspal S and Tall, Alan R and Hegele, Robert A and Kastelein, John J P and Schadt, Eric E and Strachan, David P and Reilly, Muredach P and Samani, Nilesh J and Schunkert, Heribert and Cupples, L Adrienne and Sandhu, Manjinder S and Ridker, Paul M and Rader, Daniel J and Kathiresan, Sekar} } @article {6027, title = {Genetic loci for retinal arteriolar microcirculation.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {8}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e65804}, abstract = {

Narrow arterioles in the retina have been shown to predict hypertension as well as other vascular diseases, likely through an increase in the peripheral resistance of the microcirculatory flow. In this study, we performed a genome-wide association study in 18,722 unrelated individuals of European ancestry from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium and the Blue Mountain Eye Study, to identify genetic determinants associated with variations in retinal arteriolar caliber. Retinal vascular calibers were measured on digitized retinal photographs using a standardized protocol. One variant (rs2194025 on chromosome 5q14 near the myocyte enhancer factor 2C MEF2C gene) was associated with retinal arteriolar caliber in the meta-analysis of the discovery cohorts at genome-wide significance of P-value <5{\texttimes}10(-8). This variant was replicated in an additional 3,939 individuals of European ancestry from the Australian Twins Study and Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (rs2194025, P-value = 2.11{\texttimes}10(-12) in combined meta-analysis of discovery and replication cohorts). In independent studies of modest sample sizes, no significant association was found between this variant and clinical outcomes including coronary artery disease, stroke, myocardial infarction or hypertension. In conclusion, we found one novel loci which underlie genetic variation in microvasculature which may be relevant to vascular disease. The relevance of these findings to clinical outcomes remains to be determined.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Arterioles, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 5, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Male, MEF2 Transcription Factors, Microcirculation, Middle Aged, Models, Genetic, Retinal Vessels}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0065804}, author = {Sim, Xueling and Jensen, Richard A and Ikram, M Kamran and Cotch, Mary Frances and Li, Xiaohui and Macgregor, Stuart and Xie, Jing and Smith, Albert Vernon and Boerwinkle, Eric and Mitchell, Paul and Klein, Ronald and Klein, Barbara E K and Glazer, Nicole L and Lumley, Thomas and McKnight, Barbara and Psaty, Bruce M and de Jong, Paulus T V M and Hofman, Albert and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Aspelund, Thor and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Harris, Tamara B and Jonasson, Fridbert and Launer, Lenore J and Attia, John and Baird, Paul N and Harrap, Stephen and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Inouye, Michael and Rochtchina, Elena and Scott, Rodney J and Viswanathan, Ananth and Li, Guo and Smith, Nicholas L and Wiggins, Kerri L and Kuo, Jane Z and Taylor, Kent D and Hewitt, Alex W and Martin, Nicholas G and Montgomery, Grant W and Sun, Cong and Young, Terri L and Mackey, David A and van Zuydam, Natalie R and Doney, Alex S F and Palmer, Colin N A and Morris, Andrew D and Rotter, Jerome I and Tai, E Shyong and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Vingerling, Johannes R and Siscovick, David S and Wang, Jie Jin and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {6072, title = {Genome-wide association study of retinopathy in individuals without diabetes.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {8}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e54232}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Mild retinopathy (microaneurysms or dot-blot hemorrhages) is observed in persons without diabetes or hypertension and may reflect microvascular disease in other organs. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of mild retinopathy in persons without diabetes.

METHODS: A working group agreed on phenotype harmonization, covariate selection and analytic plans for within-cohort GWAS. An inverse-variance weighted fixed effects meta-analysis was performed with GWAS results from six cohorts of 19,411 Caucasians. The primary analysis included individuals without diabetes and secondary analyses were stratified by hypertension status. We also singled out the results from single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) previously shown to be associated with diabetes and hypertension, the two most common causes of retinopathy.

RESULTS: No SNPs reached genome-wide significance in the primary analysis or the secondary analysis of participants with hypertension. SNP, rs12155400, in the histone deacetylase 9 gene (HDAC9) on chromosome 7, was associated with retinopathy in analysis of participants without hypertension, -1.3{\textpm}0.23 (beta {\textpm} standard error), p = 6.6{\texttimes}10(-9). Evidence suggests this was a false positive finding. The minor allele frequency was low (\~{}2\%), the quality of the imputation was moderate (r(2) \~{}0.7), and no other common variants in the HDAC9 gene were associated with the outcome. SNPs found to be associated with diabetes and hypertension in other GWAS were not associated with retinopathy in persons without diabetes or in subgroups with or without hypertension.

CONCLUSIONS: This GWAS of retinopathy in individuals without diabetes showed little evidence of genetic associations. Further studies are needed to identify genes associated with these signs in order to help unravel novel pathways and determinants of microvascular diseases.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Histone Deacetylases, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Repressor Proteins, Retinal Diseases}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0054232}, author = {Jensen, Richard A and Sim, Xueling and Li, Xiaohui and Cotch, Mary Frances and Ikram, M Kamran and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Harris, Tamara B and Jonasson, Fridbert and Klein, Barbara E K and Launer, Lenore J and Smith, Albert Vernon and Boerwinkle, Eric and Cheung, Ning and Hewitt, Alex W and Liew, Gerald and Mitchell, Paul and Wang, Jie Jin and Attia, John and Scott, Rodney and Glazer, Nicole L and Lumley, Thomas and McKnight, Barbara and Psaty, Bruce M and Taylor, Kent and Hofman, Albert and de Jong, Paulus T V M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Tay, Wan-Ting and Teo, Yik Ying and Seielstad, Mark and Liu, Jianjun and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Saw, Seang-Mei and Aung, Tin and Ganesh, Santhi K and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Nalls, Mike A and Wiggins, Kerri L and Kuo, Jane Z and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Klein, Ronald and Siscovick, David S and Rotter, Jerome I and Tai, E Shong and Vingerling, Johannes and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {5875, title = {Insights into the genetic architecture of early stage age-related macular degeneration: a genome-wide association study meta-analysis.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {8}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e53830}, abstract = {

Genetic factors explain a majority of risk variance for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). While genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for late AMD implicate genes in complement, inflammatory and lipid pathways, the genetic architecture of early AMD has been relatively under studied. We conducted a GWAS meta-analysis of early AMD, including 4,089 individuals with prevalent signs of early AMD (soft drusen and/or retinal pigment epithelial changes) and 20,453 individuals without these signs. For various published late AMD risk loci, we also compared effect sizes between early and late AMD using an additional 484 individuals with prevalent late AMD. GWAS meta-analysis confirmed previously reported association of variants at the complement factor H (CFH) (peak P = 1.5{\texttimes}10(-31)) and age-related maculopathy susceptibility 2 (ARMS2) (P = 4.3{\texttimes}10(-24)) loci, and suggested Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) polymorphisms (rs2075650; P = 1.1{\texttimes}10(-6)) associated with early AMD. Other possible loci that did not reach GWAS significance included variants in the zinc finger protein gene GLI3 (rs2049622; P = 8.9{\texttimes}10(-6)) and upstream of GLI2 (rs6721654; P = 6.5{\texttimes}10(-6)), encoding retinal Sonic hedgehog signalling regulators, and in the tyrosinase (TYR) gene (rs621313; P = 3.5{\texttimes}10(-6)), involved in melanin biosynthesis. For a range of published, late AMD risk loci, estimated effect sizes were significantly lower for early than late AMD. This study confirms the involvement of multiple established AMD risk variants in early AMD, but suggests weaker genetic effects on the risk of early AMD relative to late AMD. Several biological processes were suggested to be potentially specific for early AMD, including pathways regulating RPE cell melanin content and signalling pathways potentially involved in retinal regeneration, generating hypotheses for further investigation.

}, keywords = {Apolipoproteins E, Complement Factor H, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Kruppel-Like Transcription Factors, Macular Degeneration, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proteins, Risk Factors, Zinc Finger Protein Gli3}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0053830}, author = {Holliday, Elizabeth G and Smith, Albert V and Cornes, Belinda K and Buitendijk, Gabri{\"e}lle H S and Jensen, Richard A and Sim, Xueling and Aspelund, Thor and Aung, Tin and Baird, Paul N and Boerwinkle, Eric and Cheng, Ching Yu and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara and Hewitt, Alex W and Inouye, Michael and Jonasson, Fridbert and Klein, Barbara E K and Launer, Lenore and Li, Xiaohui and Liew, Gerald and Lumley, Thomas and McElduff, Patrick and McKnight, Barbara and Mitchell, Paul and Psaty, Bruce M and Rochtchina, Elena and Rotter, Jerome I and Scott, Rodney J and Tay, Wanting and Taylor, Kent and Teo, Yik Ying and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Viswanathan, Ananth and Xie, Sophia and Vingerling, Johannes R and Klaver, Caroline C W and Tai, E Shyong and Siscovick, David and Klein, Ronald and Cotch, Mary Frances and Wong, Tien Y and Attia, John and Wang, Jie Jin} } @article {6555, title = {Association of levels of fasting glucose and insulin with rare variants at the chromosome 11p11.2-MADD locus: Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium Targeted Sequencing Study.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jun}, pages = {374-382}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Common variation at the 11p11.2 locus, encompassing MADD, ACP2, NR1H3, MYBPC3, and SPI1, has been associated in genome-wide association studies with fasting glucose and insulin (FI). In the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Targeted Sequencing Study, we sequenced 5 gene regions at 11p11.2 to identify rare, potentially functional variants influencing fasting glucose or FI levels.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Sequencing (mean depth, 38{\texttimes}) across 16.1 kb in 3566 individuals without diabetes mellitus identified 653 variants, 79.9\% of which were rare (minor allele frequency <1\%) and novel. We analyzed rare variants in 5 gene regions with FI or fasting glucose using the sequence kernel association test. At NR1H3, 53 rare variants were jointly associated with FI (P=2.73{\texttimes}10(-3)); of these, 7 were predicted to have regulatory function and showed association with FI (P=1.28{\texttimes}10(-3)). Conditioning on 2 previously associated variants at MADD (rs7944584, rs10838687) did not attenuate this association, suggesting that there are >2 independent signals at 11p11.2. One predicted regulatory variant, chr11:47227430 (hg18; minor allele frequency=0.00068), contributed 20.6\% to the overall sequence kernel association test score at NR1H3, lies in intron 2 of NR1H3, and is a predicted binding site for forkhead box A1 (FOXA1), a transcription factor associated with insulin regulation. In human HepG2 hepatoma cells, the rare chr11:47227430 A allele disrupted FOXA1 binding and reduced FOXA1-dependent transcriptional activity.

CONCLUSIONS: Sequencing at 11p11.2-NR1H3 identified rare variation associated with FI. One variant, chr11:47227430, seems to be functional, with the rare A allele reducing transcription factor FOXA1 binding and FOXA1-dependent transcriptional activity.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Blood Glucose, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 11, Cohort Studies, Death Domain Receptor Signaling Adaptor Proteins, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Fasting, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genomics, Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors, Heart Diseases, Humans, Insulin, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sequence Analysis, DNA}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.113.000169}, author = {Cornes, Belinda K and Brody, Jennifer A and Nikpoor, Naghmeh and Morrison, Alanna C and Chu, Huan and Ahn, Byung Soo and Wang, Shuai and Dauriz, Marco and Barzilay, Joshua I and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Florez, Jose C and Coresh, Josef and Gibbs, Richard A and Kao, W H Linda and Liu, Ching-Ti and McKnight, Barbara and Muzny, Donna and Pankow, James S and Reid, Jeffrey G and White, Charles C and Johnson, Andrew D and Wong, Tien Y and Psaty, Bruce M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Rotter, Jerome I and Siscovick, David S and Sladek, Robert and Meigs, James B} } @article {7019, title = {Genetic determinants of age-related macular degeneration in diverse populations from the PAGE study.}, journal = {Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci}, volume = {55}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Sep 9}, pages = {6839-50}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: Substantial progress has been made in identifying susceptibility variants for AMD in European populations; however, few studies have been conducted to understand the role these variants play in AMD risk in diverse populations. The present study aims to examine AMD risk across diverse populations in known and suspected AMD complement factor and lipid-related loci.

METHODS: Targeted genotyping was performed across study sites for AMD and lipid trait-associated single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs). Genetic association tests were performed at individual sites and then meta-analyzed using logistic regression assuming an additive genetic model stratified by self-described race/ethnicity. Participants included cases with early or late AMD and controls with no signs of AMD as determined by fundus photography. Populations included in this study were European Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Singaporeans from the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study.

RESULTS: Index variants of AMD, rs1061170 (CFH) and rs10490924 (ARMS2), were associated with AMD at P=3.05{\texttimes}10(-8) and P=6.36{\texttimes}10(-6), respectively, in European Americans. In general, none of the major AMD index variants generalized to our non-European populations with the exception of rs10490924 in Mexican Americans at an uncorrected P value<0.05. Four lipid-associated SNPS (LPL rs328, TRIB1 rs6987702, CETP rs1800775, and KCTD10/MVK rs2338104) were associated with AMD in African Americans and Mexican Americans (P<0.05), but these associations did not survive strict corrections for multiple testing.

CONCLUSIONS: While most associations did not generalize in the non-European populations, variants within lipid-related genes were found to be associated with AMD. This study highlights the need for larger well-powered studies in non-European populations.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Complement Factor H, DNA, Ethnic Groups, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genotype, Humans, Macular Degeneration, Male, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prevalence, Prospective Studies, Proteins, Risk Factors, United States}, issn = {1552-5783}, doi = {10.1167/iovs.14-14246}, author = {Restrepo, Nicole A and Spencer, Kylee L and Goodloe, Robert and Garrett, Tiana A and Heiss, Gerardo and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Jorgensen, Neal and Jensen, Richard A and Matise, Tara C and Hindorff, Lucia A and Klein, Barbara E K and Klein, Ronald and Wong, Tien Y and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Cornes, Belinda K and Tai, E-Shyong and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Haines, Jonathan L and Crawford, Dana C} } @article {6665, title = {Fibrosis-related biomarkers and large and small vessel disease: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Atherosclerosis}, volume = {239}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Apr}, pages = {539-46}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Fibrosis has been implicated in a number of pathological, organ-based conditions of the liver, kidney, heart, and lungs. The objective of this study was to determine whether biomarkers of fibrosis are associated with vascular disease in the large and/or small vessels.

METHODS: We evaluated the associations of two circulating biomarkers of fibrosis, transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) and procollagen type III N-terminal propeptide (PIIINP), with incident peripheral artery disease (PAD) and subclinical macrovascular (carotid intima-media thickness, flow-mediated vasodilation, ankle-brachial index, retinal vein diameter), and microvascular (retinal artery diameter and retinopathy) disease among older adults in the Cardiovascular Health Study. We measured TGF-β and PIIINP from samples collected in 1996 and ascertained clinical PAD through 2011. Measurements of large and small vessels were collected between 1996 and 1998.

RESULTS: After adjustment for sociodemographic, clinical, and biochemical risk factors, TGF-β was associated with incident PAD (hazard ratio [HR]~=~1.36 per doubling of TGF-β, 95\% confidence interval [CI]~=~1.04, 1.78) and retinal venular diameter (1.63~μm per doubling of TGF-β, CI~=~0.23, 3.02). PIIINP was not associated with incident PAD, but was associated with carotid intima-media thickness (0.102~mm per doubling of PIIINP, CI~=~0.029, 0.174) and impaired brachial artery reactivity (-0.20\% change per doubling of PIIINP, CI~=~-0.39,~-0.02). Neither TGF-β nor PIIINP were associated with retinal arteriolar diameter or retinopathy.

CONCLUSIONS: Serum concentrations of fibrosis-related biomarkers were associated with several measures of large vessel disease, including incident PAD, but not with small vessel disease. Fibrosis may contribute to large vessel atherosclerosis in older adults.

}, keywords = {Aged, Ankle Brachial Index, Biomarkers, Brachial Artery, Carotid Artery Diseases, Carotid Intima-Media Thickness, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Fibrosis, Humans, Incidence, Male, Peptide Fragments, Peripheral Arterial Disease, Predictive Value of Tests, Procollagen, Prognosis, Prospective Studies, Retinal Diseases, Risk Factors, Transforming Growth Factor beta, United States, Vasodilation}, issn = {1879-1484}, doi = {10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2015.02.020}, author = {Agarwal, Isha and Arnold, Alice and Glazer, Nicole L and Barasch, Eddy and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Gottdiener, John S and Ix, Joachim H and Jensen, Richard A and Kizer, Jorge R and Rimm, Eric B and Siscovick, David S and Tracy, Russell P and Wong, Tien Y and Mukamal, Kenneth J} } @article {6686, title = {Low-frequency and rare exome chip variants associate with fasting glucose and type 2 diabetes susceptibility.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {6}, year = {2015}, month = {2015}, pages = {5897}, abstract = {

Fasting glucose and insulin are intermediate traits for type 2 diabetes. Here we explore the role of coding variation on these traits by analysis of variants on the HumanExome BeadChip in 60,564 non-diabetic individuals and in 16,491 T2D cases and 81,877 controls. We identify a novel association of a low-frequency nonsynonymous SNV in GLP1R (A316T; rs10305492; MAF=1.4\%) with lower FG (β=-0.09{\textpm}0.01 mmol l(-1), P=3.4 {\texttimes} 10(-12)), T2D risk (OR[95\%CI]=0.86[0.76-0.96], P=0.010), early insulin secretion (β=-0.07{\textpm}0.035 pmolinsulin mmolglucose(-1), P=0.048), but higher 2-h glucose (β=0.16{\textpm}0.05 mmol l(-1), P=4.3 {\texttimes} 10(-4)). We identify a gene-based association with FG at G6PC2 (pSKAT=6.8 {\texttimes} 10(-6)) driven by four rare protein-coding SNVs (H177Y, Y207S, R283X and S324P). We identify rs651007 (MAF=20\%) in the first intron of ABO at the putative promoter of an antisense lncRNA, associating with higher FG (β=0.02{\textpm}0.004 mmol l(-1), P=1.3 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Our approach identifies novel coding variant associations and extends the allelic spectrum of variation underlying diabetes-related quantitative traits and T2D susceptibility.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Blood Glucose, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, European Continental Ancestry Group, Exome, Fasting, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor, Glucose-6-Phosphatase, Humans, Insulin, Mutation Rate, Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms6897}, author = {Wessel, Jennifer and Chu, Audrey Y and Willems, Sara M and Wang, Shuai and Yaghootkar, Hanieh and Brody, Jennifer A and Dauriz, Marco and Hivert, Marie-France and Raghavan, Sridharan and Lipovich, Leonard and Hidalgo, Bertha and Fox, Keolu and Huffman, Jennifer E and An, Ping and Lu, Yingchang and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Grarup, Niels and Ehm, Margaret G and Li, Li and Baldridge, Abigail S and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Abrol, Ravinder and Besse, C{\'e}line and Boland, Anne and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Fornage, Myriam and Freitag, Daniel F and Garcia, Melissa E and Guo, Xiuqing and Hara, Kazuo and Isaacs, Aaron and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Lange, Leslie A and Layton, Jill C and Li, Man and Hua Zhao, Jing and Meidtner, Karina and Morrison, Alanna C and Nalls, Mike A and Peters, Marjolein J and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Schurmann, Claudia and Silveira, Angela and Smith, Albert V and Southam, Lorraine and Stoiber, Marcus H and Strawbridge, Rona J and Taylor, Kent D and Varga, Tibor V and Allin, Kristine H and Amin, Najaf and Aponte, Jennifer L and Aung, Tin and Barbieri, Caterina and Bihlmeyer, Nathan A and Boehnke, Michael and Bombieri, Cristina and Bowden, Donald W and Burns, Sean M and Chen, Yuning and Chen, Yii-DerI and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Correa, Adolfo and Czajkowski, Jacek and Dehghan, Abbas and Ehret, Georg B and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Escher, Stefan A and Farmaki, Aliki-Eleni and Fr{\r a}nberg, Mattias and Gambaro, Giovanni and Giulianini, Franco and Goddard, William A and Goel, Anuj and Gottesman, Omri and Grove, Megan L and Gustafsson, Stefan and Hai, Yang and Hallmans, G{\"o}ran and Heo, Jiyoung and Hoffmann, Per and Ikram, Mohammad K and Jensen, Richard A and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Karaleftheri, Maria and Khor, Chiea C and Kirkpatrick, Andrea and Kraja, Aldi T and Kuusisto, Johanna and Lange, Ethan M and Lee, I T and Lee, Wen-Jane and Leong, Aaron and Liao, Jiemin and Liu, Chunyu and Liu, Yongmei and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Linneberg, Allan and Malerba, Giovanni and Mamakou, Vasiliki and Marouli, Eirini and Maruthur, Nisa M and Matchan, Angela and McKean-Cowdin, Roberta and McLeod, Olga and Metcalf, Ginger A and Mohlke, Karen L and Muzny, Donna M and Ntalla, Ioanna and Palmer, Nicholette D and Pasko, Dorota and Peter, Andreas and Rayner, Nigel W and Renstrom, Frida and Rice, Ken and Sala, Cinzia F and Sennblad, Bengt and Serafetinidis, Ioannis and Smith, Jennifer A and Soranzo, Nicole and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Stahl, Eli A and Stirrups, Kathleen and Tentolouris, Nikos and Thanopoulou, Anastasia and Torres, Mina and Traglia, Michela and Tsafantakis, Emmanouil and Javad, Sundas and Yanek, Lisa R and Zengini, Eleni and Becker, Diane M and Bis, Joshua C and Brown, James B and Cupples, L Adrienne and Hansen, Torben and Ingelsson, Erik and Karter, Andrew J and Lorenzo, Carlos and Mathias, Rasika A and Norris, Jill M and Peloso, Gina M and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Toniolo, Daniela and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Varma, Rohit and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Boeing, Heiner and Bottinger, Erwin P and Dedoussis, George and Deloukas, Panos and Ferrannini, Ele and Franco, Oscar H and Franks, Paul W and Gibbs, Richard A and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hamsten, Anders and Harris, Tamara B and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hayward, Caroline and Hofman, Albert and Jansson, Jan-H{\r a}kan and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Levy, Daniel and Oostra, Ben A and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and O{\textquoteright}Rahilly, Stephen and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Pankow, James S and Polasek, Ozren and Province, Michael A and Rich, Stephen S and Ridker, Paul M and Rudan, Igor and Schulze, Matthias B and Smith, Blair H and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Walker, Mark and Watkins, Hugh and Wong, Tien Y and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Laakso, Markku and Borecki, Ingrid B and Chasman, Daniel I and Pedersen, Oluf and Psaty, Bruce M and Tai, E Shyong and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Wareham, Nicholas J and Waterworth, Dawn M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Kao, W H Linda and Florez, Jose C and Loos, Ruth J F and Wilson, James G and Frayling, Timothy M and Siscovick, David S and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Rotter, Jerome I and Meigs, James B and Scott, Robert A and Goodarzi, Mark O} } @article {6683, title = {Multiethnic genome-wide association study of cerebral white matter hyperintensities on MRI.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {8}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Apr}, pages = {398-409}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The burden of cerebral white matter hyperintensities (WMH) is associated with an increased risk of stroke, dementia, and death. WMH are highly heritable, but their genetic underpinnings are incompletely characterized. To identify novel genetic variants influencing WMH burden, we conducted a meta-analysis of multiethnic genome-wide association studies.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We included 21 079 middle-aged to elderly individuals from 29 population-based cohorts, who were free of dementia and stroke and were of European (n=17 936), African (n=1943), Hispanic (n=795), and Asian (n=405) descent. WMH burden was quantified on MRI either by a validated automated segmentation method or a validated visual grading scale. Genotype data in each study were imputed to the 1000 Genomes reference. Within each ethnic group, we investigated the relationship between each single-nucleotide polymorphism and WMH burden using a linear regression model adjusted for age, sex, intracranial volume, and principal components of ancestry. A meta-analysis was conducted for each ethnicity separately and for the combined sample. In the European descent samples, we confirmed a previously known locus on chr17q25 (P=2.7{\texttimes}10(-19)) and identified novel loci on chr10q24 (P=1.6{\texttimes}10(-9)) and chr2p21 (P=4.4{\texttimes}10(-8)). In the multiethnic meta-analysis, we identified 2 additional loci, on chr1q22 (P=2.0{\texttimes}10(-8)) and chr2p16 (P=1.5{\texttimes}10(-8)). The novel loci contained genes that have been implicated in Alzheimer disease (chr2p21 and chr10q24), intracerebral hemorrhage (chr1q22), neuroinflammatory diseases (chr2p21), and glioma (chr10q24 and chr2p16).

CONCLUSIONS: We identified 4 novel genetic loci that implicate inflammatory and glial proliferative pathways in the development of WMH in addition to previously proposed ischemic mechanisms.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Chromosomes, Human, Continental Population Groups, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Middle Aged, Models, Genetic, Stroke, White Matter}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.114.000858}, author = {Verhaaren, Benjamin F J and Debette, Stephanie and Bis, Joshua C and Smith, Jennifer A and Ikram, M Kamran and Adams, Hieab H and Beecham, Ashley H and Rajan, Kumar B and Lopez, Lorna M and Barral, Sandra and van Buchem, Mark A and van der Grond, Jeroen and Smith, Albert V and Hegenscheid, Katrin and Aggarwal, Neelum T and de Andrade, Mariza and Atkinson, Elizabeth J and Beekman, Marian and Beiser, Alexa S and Blanton, Susan H and Boerwinkle, Eric and Brickman, Adam M and Bryan, R Nick and Chauhan, Ganesh and Chen, Christopher P L H and Chouraki, Vincent and de Craen, Anton J M and Crivello, Fabrice and Deary, Ian J and Deelen, Joris and De Jager, Philip L and Dufouil, Carole and Elkind, Mitchell S V and Evans, Denis A and Freudenberger, Paul and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Gu{\dh}nason, Vilmundur and Habes, Mohamad and Heckbert, Susan R and Heiss, Gerardo and Hilal, Saima and Hofer, Edith and Hofman, Albert and Ibrahim-Verbaas, Carla A and Knopman, David S and Lewis, Cora E and Liao, Jiemin and Liewald, David C M and Luciano, Michelle and van der Lugt, Aad and Martinez, Oliver O and Mayeux, Richard and Mazoyer, Bernard and Nalls, Mike and Nauck, Matthias and Niessen, Wiro J and Oostra, Ben A and Psaty, Bruce M and Rice, Kenneth M and Rotter, Jerome I and von Sarnowski, Bettina and Schmidt, Helena and Schreiner, Pamela J and Schuur, Maaike and Sidney, Stephen S and Sigurdsson, Sigurdur and Slagboom, P Eline and Stott, David J M and van Swieten, John C and Teumer, Alexander and T{\"o}glhofer, Anna Maria and Traylor, Matthew and Trompet, Stella and Turner, Stephen T and Tzourio, Christophe and Uh, Hae-Won and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vernooij, Meike W and Wang, Jing J and Wong, Tien Y and Wardlaw, Joanna M and Windham, B Gwen and Wittfeld, Katharina and Wolf, Christiane and Wright, Clinton B and Yang, Qiong and Zhao, Wei and Zijdenbos, Alex and Jukema, J Wouter and Sacco, Ralph L and Kardia, Sharon L R and Amouyel, Philippe and Mosley, Thomas H and Longstreth, W T and DeCarli, Charles C and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Schmidt, Reinhold and Launer, Lenore J and Grabe, Hans J and Seshadri, Sudha S and Ikram, M Arfan and Fornage, Myriam} }