@article {1011, title = {Common genetic variants associated with plasma fibrin D-dimer concentration in older European- and African-American adults.}, journal = {J Thromb Haemost}, volume = {6}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Apr}, pages = {654-9}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: D-dimer is a hemostasis marker that reflects ongoing fibrin formation and degradation. There is significant inter-individual and inter-population variability in D-dimer concentration, but whether genetic factors underlie these differences is largely unknown. We hypothesized that common coagulation gene variants contribute to differences in circulating D-dimer concentration.

METHODS: The setting was European-American (EA; n = 1858) and African-American (AA; n = 327) unrelated older adults from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), in which we genotyped SNPs in 42 genes related to blood coagulation and fibrinolysis.

RESULTS: Several fibrinogen gene polymorphisms, including the Thr312Ala Aalpha chain variant and the FGG-10034 C/T variant, were associated with approximately 20\% higher plasma D-dimer levels in EA (false discovery rate < 5\% for covariate-adjusted model). There was also some evidence that a Pro41Leu variant of the PLAU gene encoding urinary plasminogen activator and non-coding polymorphism of the plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 gene (SERPINE1) were associated with higher plasma D-dimer in EA. There were no significant associations between the studied coagulation or fibrinolysis gene SNPs and plasma D-dimer levels in the smaller AA sample. However, each standard deviation increase in European ancestry assessed by ancestry-informative gene markers was associated with approximately 10\% lower mean D-dimer levels in AA.

CONCLUSIONS: Together, common coagulation/fibrinolysis gene SNPs explained only approximately 2\% of the variance in plasma D-dimer levels in EA. These findings suggest that the association of D-dimer with risk of vascular outcomes may be mediated largely by environmental factors, other genes, and/or genetic interactions.

}, keywords = {Africa, African Americans, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Blood Coagulation, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products, Fibrinogen, Fibrinolysis, Genotype, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor 1, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prospective Studies, United States, Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator}, issn = {1538-7836}, doi = {10.1111/j.1538-7836.2008.02906.x}, author = {Lange, L A and Reiner, A P and Carty, C L and Jenny, N S and Cushman, M and Lange, E M} } @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 {1204, title = {Common genetic determinants of vitamin D insufficiency: a genome-wide association study.}, journal = {Lancet}, volume = {376}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Jul 17}, pages = {180-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Vitamin D is crucial for maintenance of musculoskeletal health, and might also have a role in extraskeletal tissues. Determinants of circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations include sun exposure and diet, but high heritability suggests that genetic factors could also play a part. We aimed to identify common genetic variants affecting vitamin D concentrations and risk of insufficiency.

METHODS: We undertook a genome-wide association study of 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations in 33 996 individuals of European descent from 15 cohorts. Five epidemiological cohorts were designated as discovery cohorts (n=16 125), five as in-silico replication cohorts (n=9367), and five as de-novo replication cohorts (n=8504). 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay, chemiluminescent assay, ELISA, or mass spectrometry. Vitamin D insufficiency was defined as concentrations lower than 75 nmol/L or 50 nmol/L. We combined results of genome-wide analyses across cohorts using Z-score-weighted meta-analysis. Genotype scores were constructed for confirmed variants.

FINDINGS: Variants at three loci reached genome-wide significance in discovery cohorts for association with 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations, and were confirmed in replication cohorts: 4p12 (overall p=1.9x10(-109) for rs2282679, in GC); 11q12 (p=2.1x10(-27) for rs12785878, near DHCR7); and 11p15 (p=3.3x10(-20) for rs10741657, near CYP2R1). Variants at an additional locus (20q13, CYP24A1) were genome-wide significant in the pooled sample (p=6.0x10(-10) for rs6013897). Participants with a genotype score (combining the three confirmed variants) in the highest quartile were at increased risk of having 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations lower than 75 nmol/L (OR 2.47, 95\% CI 2.20-2.78, p=2.3x10(-48)) or lower than 50 nmol/L (1.92, 1.70-2.16, p=1.0x10(-26)) compared with those in the lowest quartile.

INTERPRETATION: Variants near genes involved in cholesterol synthesis, hydroxylation, and vitamin D transport affect vitamin D status. Genetic variation at these loci identifies individuals who have substantially raised risk of vitamin D insufficiency.

FUNDING: Full funding sources listed at end of paper (see Acknowledgments).

}, keywords = {Canada, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 11, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 4, Cohort Studies, Dietary Supplements, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Heterozygote, Homozygote, Humans, Immunoassay, International Cooperation, Linkage Disequilibrium, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Seasons, United States, Vitamin D, Vitamin D Deficiency}, issn = {1474-547X}, doi = {10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60588-0}, author = {Wang, Thomas J and Zhang, Feng and Richards, J Brent and Kestenbaum, Bryan and van Meurs, Joyce B and Berry, Diane and Kiel, Douglas P and Streeten, Elizabeth A and Ohlsson, Claes and Koller, Daniel L and Peltonen, Leena and Cooper, Jason D and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Houston, Denise K and Glazer, Nicole L and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Peacock, Munro and Shi, Julia and Rivadeneira, Fernando and McCarthy, Mark I and Anneli, Pouta and de Boer, Ian H and Mangino, Massimo and Kato, Bernet and Smyth, Deborah J and Booth, Sarah L and Jacques, Paul F and Burke, Greg L and Goodarzi, Mark and Cheung, Ching-Lung and Wolf, Myles and Rice, Kenneth and Goltzman, David and Hidiroglou, Nick and Ladouceur, Martin and Wareham, Nicholas J and Hocking, Lynne J and Hart, Deborah and Arden, Nigel K and Cooper, Cyrus and Malik, Suneil and Fraser, William D and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Zhai, Guangju and Macdonald, Helen M and Forouhi, Nita G and Loos, Ruth J F and Reid, David M and Hakim, Alan and Dennison, Elaine and Liu, Yongmei and Power, Chris and Stevens, Helen E and Jaana, Laitinen and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Soranzo, Nicole and Bojunga, J{\"o}rg and Psaty, Bruce M and Lorentzon, Mattias and Foroud, Tatiana and Harris, Tamara B and Hofman, Albert and Jansson, John-Olov and Cauley, Jane A and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Gibson, Quince and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Karasik, David and Siscovick, David S and Econs, Michael J and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Florez, Jose C and Todd, John A and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Hypp{\"o}nen, Elina and Spector, Timothy D} } @article {1183, title = {New loci associated with kidney function and chronic kidney disease.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {42}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 May}, pages = {376-84}, abstract = {

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a significant public health problem, and recent genetic studies have identified common CKD susceptibility variants. The CKDGen consortium performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association data in 67,093 individuals of European ancestry from 20 predominantly population-based studies in order to identify new susceptibility loci for reduced renal function as estimated by serum creatinine (eGFRcrea), serum cystatin c (eGFRcys) and CKD (eGFRcrea < 60 ml/min/1.73 m(2); n = 5,807 individuals with CKD (cases)). Follow-up of the 23 new genome-wide-significant loci (P < 5 x 10(-8)) in 22,982 replication samples identified 13 new loci affecting renal function and CKD (in or near LASS2, GCKR, ALMS1, TFDP2, DAB2, SLC34A1, VEGFA, PRKAG2, PIP5K1B, ATXN2, DACH1, UBE2Q2 and SLC7A9) and 7 loci suspected to affect creatinine production and secretion (CPS1, SLC22A2, TMEM60, WDR37, SLC6A13, WDR72 and BCAS3). These results further our understanding of the biologic mechanisms of kidney function by identifying loci that potentially influence nephrogenesis, podocyte function, angiogenesis, solute transport and metabolic functions of the kidney.

}, keywords = {Cohort Studies, Creatinine, Cystatin C, Diet, Europe, Genetic Markers, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Kidney, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Models, Genetic, Risk Factors}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.568}, author = {K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Pattaro, Cristian and B{\"o}ger, Carsten A and Fuchsberger, Christian and Olden, Matthias and Glazer, Nicole L and Parsa, Afshin and Gao, Xiaoyi and Yang, Qiong and Smith, Albert V and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Li, Man and Schmidt, Helena and Tanaka, Toshiko and Isaacs, Aaron and Ketkar, Shamika and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Johnson, Andrew D and Dehghan, Abbas and Teumer, Alexander and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Atkinson, Elizabeth J and Zeller, Tanja and Lohman, Kurt and Cornelis, Marilyn C and Probst-Hensch, Nicole M and Kronenberg, Florian and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Hayward, Caroline and Aspelund, Thor and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Launer, Lenore J and Harris, Tamara B and Rampersaud, Evadnie and Mitchell, Braxton D and Arking, Dan E and Boerwinkle, Eric and Struchalin, Maksim and Cavalieri, Margherita and Singleton, Andrew and Giallauria, Francesco and Metter, Jeffrey and de Boer, Ian H and Haritunians, Talin and Lumley, Thomas and Siscovick, David and Psaty, Bruce M and Zillikens, M Carola and Oostra, Ben A and Feitosa, Mary and Province, Michael and de Andrade, Mariza and Turner, Stephen T and Schillert, Arne and Ziegler, Andreas and Wild, Philipp S and Schnabel, Renate B and Wilde, Sandra and Munzel, Thomas F and Leak, Tennille S and Illig, Thomas and Klopp, Norman and Meisinger, Christa and Wichmann, H-Erich and Koenig, Wolfgang and Zgaga, Lina and Zemunik, Tatijana and Kolcic, Ivana and Minelli, Cosetta and Hu, Frank B and Johansson, Asa and Igl, Wilmar and Zaboli, Ghazal and Wild, Sarah H and Wright, Alan F and Campbell, Harry and Ellinghaus, David and Schreiber, Stefan and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Felix, Janine F and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Hofman, Albert and Imboden, Medea and Nitsch, Dorothea and Brandst{\"a}tter, Anita and Kollerits, Barbara and Kedenko, Lyudmyla and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Stumvoll, Michael and Kovacs, Peter and Boban, Mladen and Campbell, Susan and Endlich, Karlhans and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Kroemer, Heyo K and Nauck, Matthias and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Polasek, Ozren and Vitart, Veronique and Badola, Sunita and Parker, Alexander N and Ridker, Paul M and Kardia, Sharon L R and Blankenberg, Stefan and Liu, Yongmei and Curhan, Gary C and Franke, Andre and Rochat, Thierry and Paulweber, Bernhard and Prokopenko, Inga and Wang, Wei and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Shuldiner, Alan R and Coresh, Josef and Schmidt, Reinhold and Ferrucci, Luigi and Shlipak, Michael G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Borecki, Ingrid and Kr{\"a}mer, Bernhard K and Rudan, Igor and Gyllensten, Ulf and Wilson, James F and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Pramstaller, Peter P and Rettig, Rainer and Hastie, Nick and Chasman, Daniel I and Kao, W H and Heid, Iris M and Fox, Caroline S} } @article {1247, title = {Validation of an atrial fibrillation risk algorithm in whites and African Americans.}, journal = {Arch Intern Med}, volume = {170}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Nov 22}, pages = {1909-17}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: We sought to validate a recently published risk algorithm for incident atrial fibrillation (AF) in independent cohorts and other racial groups.

METHODS: We evaluated the performance of a Framingham Heart Study (FHS)-derived risk algorithm modified for 5-year incidence of AF in the FHS (n = 4764 participants) and 2 geographically and racially diverse cohorts in the age range 45 to 95 years: AGES (the Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility-Reykjavik Study) (n = 4238) and CHS (the Cardiovascular Health Study) (n = 5410, of whom 874 [16.2\%] were African Americans). The risk algorithm included age, sex, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, electrocardiographic PR interval, hypertension treatment, and heart failure.

RESULTS: We found 1359 incident AF events in 100 074 person-years of follow-up. Unadjusted 5-year event rates differed by cohort (AGES, 12.8 cases/1000 person-years; CHS whites, 22.7 cases/1000 person-years; and FHS, 4.5 cases/1000 person-years) and by race (CHS African Americans, 18.4 cases/1000 person-years). The strongest risk factors in all samples were age and heart failure. The relative risks for incident AF associated with risk factors were comparable across cohorts and race groups. After recalibration for baseline incidence and risk factor distribution, the Framingham algorithm, reported in C statistic, performed reasonably well in all samples: AGES, 0.67 (95\% confidence interval [CI], 0.64-0.71); CHS whites, 0.68 (95\% CI, 0.66-0.70); and CHS African Americans, 0.66 (95\% CI, 0.61-0.71). Risk factors combined in the algorithm explained between 47.0\% (AGES) and 63.6\% (FHS) of the population-attributable risk.

CONCLUSIONS: Risk of incident AF in community-dwelling whites and African Americans can be assessed reliably by routinely available and potentially modifiable clinical variables. Seven risk factors accounted for up to 64\% of risk.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Algorithms, Atrial Fibrillation, Blood Pressure, Body Mass Index, Cohort Studies, Electrocardiography, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Heart Failure, Humans, Hypertension, Incidence, Kaplan-Meier Estimate, Male, Middle Aged, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Systole, United States}, issn = {1538-3679}, doi = {10.1001/archinternmed.2010.434}, author = {Schnabel, Renate B and Aspelund, Thor and Li, Guo and Sullivan, Lisa M and Suchy-Dicey, Astrid and Harris, Tamara B and Pencina, Michael J and D{\textquoteright}Agostino, Ralph B and Levy, Daniel and Kannel, William B and Wang, Thomas J and Kronmal, Richard A and Wolf, Philip A and Burke, Gregory L and Launer, Lenore J and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Psaty, Bruce M and Benjamin, Emelia J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Heckbert, Susan R} } @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 {1355, title = {New gene functions in megakaryopoiesis and platelet formation.}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {480}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Nov 30}, pages = {201-8}, abstract = {

Platelets are the second most abundant cell type in blood and are essential for maintaining haemostasis. Their count and volume are tightly controlled within narrow physiological ranges, but there is only limited understanding of the molecular processes controlling both traits. Here we carried out a high-powered meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in up to 66,867 individuals of European ancestry, followed by extensive biological and functional assessment. We identified 68 genomic loci reliably associated with platelet count and volume mapping to established and putative novel regulators of megakaryopoiesis and platelet formation. These genes show megakaryocyte-specific gene expression patterns and extensive network connectivity. Using gene silencing in Danio rerio and Drosophila melanogaster, we identified 11 of the genes as novel regulators of blood cell formation. Taken together, our findings advance understanding of novel gene functions controlling fate-determining events during megakaryopoiesis and platelet formation, providing a new example of successful translation of GWAS to function.

}, keywords = {Animals, Blood Platelets, Cell Size, Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila Proteins, Europe, Gene Expression Profiling, Gene Silencing, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hematopoiesis, Humans, Megakaryocytes, Platelet Count, Protein Interaction Maps, Transcription, Genetic, Zebrafish, Zebrafish Proteins}, issn = {1476-4687}, doi = {10.1038/nature10659}, author = {Gieger, Christian and Radhakrishnan, Aparna and Cvejic, Ana and Tang, Weihong and Porcu, Eleonora and Pistis, Giorgio and Serbanovic-Canic, Jovana and Elling, Ulrich and Goodall, Alison H and Labrune, Yann and Lopez, Lorna M and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Meacham, Stuart and Okada, Yukinori and Pirastu, Nicola and Sorice, Rossella and Teumer, Alexander and Voss, Katrin and Zhang, Weihua and Ramirez-Solis, Ramiro and Bis, Joshua C and Ellinghaus, David and G{\"o}gele, Martin and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Langenberg, Claudia and Kovacs, Peter and O{\textquoteright}Reilly, Paul F and Shin, So-Youn and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Hartiala, Jaana and Kanoni, Stavroula and Murgia, Federico and Parsa, Afshin and Stephens, Jonathan and van der Harst, Pim and Ellen van der Schoot, C and Allayee, Hooman and Attwood, Antony and Balkau, Beverley and Bastardot, Fran{\c c}ois and Basu, Saonli and Baumeister, Sebastian E and Biino, Ginevra and Bomba, Lorenzo and Bonnefond, Am{\'e}lie and Cambien, Francois and Chambers, John C and Cucca, Francesco and D{\textquoteright}Adamo, Pio and Davies, Gail and de Boer, Rudolf A and de Geus, Eco J C and D{\"o}ring, Angela and Elliott, Paul and Erdmann, Jeanette and Evans, David M and Falchi, Mario and Feng, Wei and Folsom, Aaron R and Frazer, Ian H and Gibson, Quince D and Glazer, Nicole L and Hammond, Chris and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Heckbert, Susan R and Hengstenberg, Christian and Hersch, Micha and Illig, Thomas and Loos, Ruth J F and Jolley, Jennifer and Khaw, Kay Tee and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Kyrtsonis, Marie-Christine and Lagou, Vasiliki and Lloyd-Jones, Heather and Lumley, Thomas and Mangino, Massimo and Maschio, Andrea and Mateo Leach, Irene and McKnight, Barbara and Memari, Yasin and Mitchell, Braxton D and Montgomery, Grant W and Nakamura, Yusuke and Nauck, Matthias and Navis, Gerjan and N{\"o}thlings, Ute and Nolte, Ilja M and Porteous, David J and Pouta, Anneli and Pramstaller, Peter P and Pullat, Janne and Ring, Susan M and Rotter, Jerome I and Ruggiero, Daniela and Ruokonen, Aimo and Sala, Cinzia and Samani, Nilesh J and Sambrook, Jennifer and Schlessinger, David and Schreiber, Stefan and Schunkert, Heribert and Scott, James and Smith, Nicholas L and Snieder, Harold and Starr, John M and Stumvoll, Michael and Takahashi, Atsushi and Tang, W H Wilson and Taylor, Kent and Tenesa, Albert and Lay Thein, Swee and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Uda, Manuela and Ulivi, Sheila and van Veldhuisen, Dirk J and Visscher, Peter M and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Wichmann, H-Erich and Wiggins, Kerri L and Willemsen, Gonneke and Yang, Tsun-Po and Hua Zhao, Jing and Zitting, Paavo and Bradley, John R and Dedoussis, George V and Gasparini, Paolo and Hazen, Stanley L and Metspalu, Andres and Pirastu, Mario and Shuldiner, Alan R and Joost van Pelt, L and Zwaginga, Jaap-Jan and Boomsma, Dorret I and Deary, Ian J and Franke, Andre and Froguel, Philippe and Ganesh, Santhi K and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Martin, Nicholas G and Meisinger, Christa and Psaty, Bruce M and Spector, Timothy D and Wareham, Nicholas J and Akkerman, Jan-Willem N and Ciullo, Marina and Deloukas, Panos and Greinacher, Andreas and Jupe, Steve and Kamatani, Naoyuki and Khadake, Jyoti and Kooner, Jaspal S and Penninger, Josef and Prokopenko, Inga and Stemple, Derek and Toniolo, Daniela and Wernisch, Lorenz and Sanna, Serena and Hicks, Andrew A and Rendon, Augusto and Ferreira, Manuel A and Ouwehand, Willem H and Soranzo, Nicole} } @article {1406, title = {Association of mild to moderate chronic kidney disease with venous thromboembolism: pooled analysis of five prospective general population cohorts.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {126}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Oct 16}, pages = {1964-71}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Recent findings suggest that chronic kidney disease (CKD) may be associated with an increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). Given the high prevalence of mild-to-moderate CKD in the general population, in depth analysis of this association is warranted.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We pooled individual participant data from 5 community-based cohorts from Europe (second Nord-Tr{\o}ndelag Health Study [HUNT2], Prevention of Renal and Vascular End-stage Disease [PREVEND], and the Troms{\o} study) and the United States (Atherosclerosis Risks in Communities [ARIC] and Cardiovascular Health Study [CHS]) to assess the association of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), albuminuria, and CKD with objectively verified VTE. To estimate adjusted hazard ratios for VTE, categorical and continuous spline models were fit by using Cox regression with shared-frailty or random-effect meta-analysis. A total of 1178 VTE events occurred over 599 453 person-years follow-up. Relative to eGFR 100 mL/min per 1.73 m(2), hazard ratios for VTE were 1.29 (95\% confidence interval, 1.04-1.59) for eGFR 75, 1.31 (1.00-1.71) for eGFR 60, 1.82 (1.27-2.60) for eGFR 45, and 1.95 (1.26-3.01) for eGFR 30 mL/min per 1.73 m(2). In comparison with an albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) of 5.0 mg/g, the hazard ratios for VTE were 1.34 (1.04-1.72) for ACR 30 mg/g, 1.60 (1.08-2.36) for ACR 300 mg/g, and 1.92 (1.19-3.09) for ACR 1000 mg/g. There was no interaction between clinical categories of eGFR and ACR (P=0.20). The adjusted hazard ratio for CKD, defined as eGFR <60 mL/min per 1.73 m(2) or albuminuria >=30 mg/g, (versus no CKD) was 1.54 (95\% confidence interval, 1.15-2.06). Associations were consistent in subgroups according to age, sex, and comorbidities, and for unprovoked versus provoked VTE, as well.

CONCLUSIONS: Both eGFR and ACR are independently associated with increased risk of VTE in the general population, even across the normal eGFR and ACR ranges.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cohort Studies, Europe, Female, Humans, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Prevalence, Renal Insufficiency, Chronic, Risk Factors, Severity of Illness Index, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.112.113944}, author = {Mahmoodi, Bakhtawar K and Gansevoort, Ron T and N{\ae}ss, Inger Anne and Lutsey, Pamela L and Br{\ae}kkan, Sigrid K and Veeger, Nic J G M and Brodin, Ellen E and Meijer, Karina and Sang, Yingying and Matsushita, Kunihiro and Hallan, Stein I and Hammerstr{\o}m, Jens and Cannegieter, Suzanne C and Astor, Brad C and Coresh, Josef and Folsom, Aaron R and Hansen, John-Bjarne and Cushman, Mary} } @article {6108, title = {Ischemic stroke is associated with the ABO locus: the EuroCLOT study.}, journal = {Ann Neurol}, volume = {73}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jan}, pages = {16-31}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: End-stage coagulation and the structure/function of fibrin are implicated in the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke. We explored whether genetic variants associated with end-stage coagulation in healthy volunteers account for the genetic predisposition to ischemic stroke and examined their influence on stroke subtype.

METHODS: Common genetic variants identified through genome-wide association studies of coagulation factors and fibrin structure/function in healthy twins (n = 2,100, Stage 1) were examined in ischemic stroke (n = 4,200 cases) using 2 independent samples of European ancestry (Stage 2). A third clinical collection having stroke subtyping (total 8,900 cases, 55,000 controls) was used for replication (Stage 3).

RESULTS: Stage 1 identified 524 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 23 linkage disequilibrium blocks having significant association (p < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) with 1 or more coagulation/fibrin phenotypes. The most striking associations included SNP rs5985 with factor XIII activity (p = 2.6 {\texttimes} 10(-186)), rs10665 with FVII (p = 2.4 {\texttimes} 10(-47)), and rs505922 in the ABO gene with both von Willebrand factor (p = 4.7 {\texttimes} 10(-57)) and factor VIII (p = 1.2 {\texttimes} 10(-36)). In Stage 2, the 23 independent SNPs were examined in stroke cases/noncases using MOnica Risk, Genetics, Archiving and Monograph (MORGAM) and Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2 collections. SNP rs505922 was nominally associated with ischemic stroke (odds ratio = 0.94, 95\% confidence interval = 0.88-0.99, p = 0.023). Independent replication in Meta-Stroke confirmed the rs505922 association with stroke, beta (standard error, SE) = 0.066 (0.02), p = 0.001, a finding specific to large-vessel and cardioembolic stroke (p = 0.001 and p = < 0.001, respectively) but not seen with small-vessel stroke (p = 0.811).

INTERPRETATION: ABO gene variants are associated with large-vessel and cardioembolic stroke but not small-vessel disease. This work sheds light on the different pathogenic mechanisms underpinning stroke subtype.

}, keywords = {ABO Blood-Group System, Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Blood Coagulation, Brain Ischemia, Cohort Studies, Europe, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Stroke, Young Adult}, issn = {1531-8249}, doi = {10.1002/ana.23838}, author = {Williams, Frances M K and Carter, Angela M and Hysi, Pirro G and Surdulescu, Gabriela and Hodgkiss, Dylan and Soranzo, Nicole and Traylor, Matthew and Bevan, Steve and Dichgans, Martin and Rothwell, Peter M W and Sudlow, Cathie and Farrall, Martin and Silander, Kaisa and Kaunisto, Mari and Wagner, Peter and Saarela, Olli and Kuulasmaa, Kari and Virtamo, Jarmo and Salomaa, Veikko and Amouyel, Philippe and Arveiler, Dominique and Ferrieres, Jean and Wiklund, Per-Gunnar and Ikram, M Arfan and Hofman, Albert and Boncoraglio, Giorgio B and Parati, Eugenio A and Helgadottir, Anna and Gretarsdottir, Solveig and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Stefansson, Kari and Seshadri, Sudha and DeStefano, Anita and Gschwendtner, Andreas and Psaty, Bruce and Longstreth, Will and Mitchell, Braxton D and Cheng, Yu-Ching and Clarke, Robert and Ferrario, Marco and Bis, Joshua C and Levi, Christopher and Attia, John and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Scott, Rodney J and Fornage, Myriam and Sharma, Pankaj and Furie, Karen L and Rosand, Jonathan and Nalls, Mike and Meschia, James and Mosely, Thomas H and Evans, Alun and Palotie, Aarno and Markus, Hugh S and Grant, Peter J and Spector, Tim D} } @article {6281, title = {Lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 variants and dietary fatty acids: meta-analysis of European origin and African American studies.}, journal = {Int J Obes (Lond)}, volume = {37}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Sep}, pages = {1211-20}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Low-density lipoprotein-related receptor protein 1 (LRP1) is a multi-functional endocytic receptor and signaling molecule that is expressed in adipose and the hypothalamus. Evidence for a role of LRP1 in adiposity is accumulating from animal and in vitro models, but data from human studies are limited. The study objectives were to evaluate (i) relationships between LRP1 genotype and anthropometric traits, and (ii) whether these relationships were modified by dietary fatty acids.

DESIGN AND METHODS: We conducted race/ethnic-specific meta-analyses using data from 14 studies of US and European whites and 4 of African Americans to evaluate associations of dietary fatty acids and LRP1 genotypes with body mass index (BMI), waist circumference and hip circumference, as well as interactions between dietary fatty acids and LRP1 genotypes. Seven single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of LRP1 were evaluated in whites (N up to 42 000) and twelve SNPs in African Americans (N up to 5800).

RESULTS: After adjustment for age, sex and population substructure if relevant, for each one unit greater intake of percentage of energy from saturated fat (SFA), BMI was 0.104 kg m(-2) greater, waist was 0.305 cm larger and hip was 0.168 cm larger (all P<0.0001). Other fatty acids were not associated with outcomes. The association of SFA with outcomes varied by genotype at rs2306692 (genotyped in four studies of whites), where the magnitude of the association of SFA intake with each outcome was greater per additional copy of the T allele: 0.107 kg m(-2) greater for BMI (interaction P=0.0001), 0.267 cm for waist (interaction P=0.001) and 0.21 cm for hip (interaction P=0.001). No other significant interactions were observed.

CONCLUSION: Dietary SFA and LRP1 genotype may interactively influence anthropometric traits. Further exploration of this, and other diet x genotype interactions, may improve understanding of interindividual variability in the relationships of dietary factors with anthropometric traits.

}, keywords = {Adipose Tissue, Adult, African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Body Mass Index, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Fatty Acids, Female, Gene Frequency, Gene-Environment Interaction, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genotype, Humans, Low Density Lipoprotein Receptor-Related Protein-1, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prevalence, United States}, issn = {1476-5497}, doi = {10.1038/ijo.2012.215}, author = {Smith, C E and Ngwa, J and Tanaka, T and Qi, Q and Wojczynski, M K and Lemaitre, R N and Anderson, J S and Manichaikul, A and Mikkil{\"a}, V and van Rooij, F J A and Ye, Z and Bandinelli, S and Frazier-Wood, A C and Houston, D K and Hu, F and Langenberg, C and McKeown, N M and Mozaffarian, D and North, K E and Viikari, J and Zillikens, M C and Djouss{\'e}, L and Hofman, A and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, M and Kabagambe, E K and Loos, R J F and Saylor, G B and Forouhi, N G and Liu, Y and Mukamal, K J and Chen, Y-D I and Tsai, M Y and Uitterlinden, A G and Raitakari, O and van Duijn, C M and Arnett, D K and Borecki, I B and Cupples, L A and Ferrucci, L and Kritchevsky, S B and Lehtim{\"a}ki, T and Qi, Lu and Rotter, J I and Siscovick, D S and Wareham, N J and Witteman, J C M and Ordov{\'a}s, J M and Nettleton, J A} } @article {6601, title = {B-type natriuretic peptide and C-reactive protein in the prediction of atrial fibrillation risk: the CHARGE-AF Consortium of community-based cohort studies.}, journal = {Europace}, volume = {16}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Oct}, pages = {1426-33}, abstract = {

AIMS: B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and C-reactive protein (CRP) predict atrial fibrillation (AF) risk. However, their risk stratification abilities in the broad community remain uncertain. We sought to improve risk stratification for AF using biomarker information.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We ascertained AF incidence in 18 556 Whites and African Americans from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC, n=10 675), Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS, n = 5043), and Framingham Heart Study (FHS, n = 2838), followed for 5 years (prediction horizon). We added BNP (ARIC/CHS: N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide; FHS: BNP), CRP, or both to a previously reported AF risk score, and assessed model calibration and predictive ability [C-statistic, integrated discrimination improvement (IDI), and net reclassification improvement (NRI)]. We replicated models in two independent European cohorts: Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility Reykjavik Study (AGES), n = 4467; Rotterdam Study (RS), n = 3203. B-type natriuretic peptide and CRP were significantly associated with AF incidence (n = 1186): hazard ratio per 1-SD ln-transformed biomarker 1.66 [95\% confidence interval (CI), 1.56-1.76], P < 0.0001 and 1.18 (95\% CI, 1.11-1.25), P < 0.0001, respectively. Model calibration was sufficient (BNP, χ(2) = 17.0; CRP, χ(2) = 10.5; BNP and CRP, χ(2) = 13.1). B-type natriuretic peptide improved the C-statistic from 0.765 to 0.790, yielded an IDI of 0.027 (95\% CI, 0.022-0.032), a relative IDI of 41.5\%, and a continuous NRI of 0.389 (95\% CI, 0.322-0.455). The predictive ability of CRP was limited (C-statistic increment 0.003). B-type natriuretic peptide consistently improved prediction in AGES and RS.

CONCLUSION: B-type natriuretic peptide, not CRP, substantially improved AF risk prediction beyond clinical factors in an independently replicated, heterogeneous population. B-type natriuretic peptide may serve as a benchmark to evaluate novel putative AF risk biomarkers.

}, keywords = {Aged, Atrial Fibrillation, Biomarkers, C-Reactive Protein, Europe, Female, Humans, Incidence, Male, Natriuretic Peptide, Brain, Peptide Fragments, Predictive Value of Tests, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, United States}, issn = {1532-2092}, doi = {10.1093/europace/euu175}, author = {Sinner, Moritz F and Stepas, Katherine A and Moser, Carlee B and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Aspelund, Thor and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Fontes, Jo{\~a}o D and Janssens, A Cecile J W and Kronmal, Richard A and Magnani, Jared W and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Chamberlain, Alanna M and Lubitz, Steven A and Schnabel, Renate B and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Wang, Thomas J and Agarwal, Sunil K and McManus, David D and Franco, Oscar H and Yin, Xiaoyan and Larson, Martin G and Burke, Gregory L and Launer, Lenore J and Hofman, Albert and Levy, Daniel and Gottdiener, John S and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Couper, David and Harris, Tamara B and Astor, Brad C and Ballantyne, Christie M and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Arai, Andrew E and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Ellinor, Patrick T and Stricker, Bruno H C and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Heckbert, Susan R and Pencina, Michael J and Benjamin, Emelia J and Alonso, Alvaro} } @article {6803, title = {Development and validation of an ankle brachial index risk model for the prediction of cardiovascular events.}, journal = {Eur J Prev Cardiol}, volume = {21}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Mar}, pages = {310-20}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The ankle brachial index (ABI) is related to risk of cardiovascular events independent of the Framingham risk score (FRS). The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a risk model for cardiovascular events incorporating the ABI and FRS.

DESIGN: An analysis of participant data from 18 cohorts in which 24,375 men and 20,377 women free of coronary heart disease had ABI measured and were followed up for events.

METHODS: Subjects were divided into a development and internal validation dataset and an external validation dataset. Two models, comprising FRS and FRS + ABI, were fitted for the primary outcome of major coronary events.

RESULTS: In predicting events in the external validation dataset, C-index for the FRS was 0.672 (95\% CI 0.599 to 0.737) in men and 0.578 (95\% CI 0.492 to 0.661) in women. The FRS + ABI led to a small increase in C-index in men to 0.685 (95\% CI 0.612 to 0.749) and large increase in women to 0.690 (95\% CI 0.605 to 0.764) with net reclassification improvement (NRI) of 4.3\% (95\% CI 0.0 to 7.6\%, p = 0.050) and 9.6\% (95\% CI 6.1 to 16.4\%, p < 0.001), respectively. Restricting the FRS + ABI model to those with FRS intermediate 10-year risk of 10 to 19\% resulted in higher NRI of 15.9\% (95\% CI 6.1 to 20.6\%, p < 0.001) in men and 23.3\% (95\% CI 13.8 to 62.5\%, p = 0.002) in women. However, incorporating ABI in an improved newly fitted risk factor model had a nonsignificant effect: NRI 2.0\% (95\% CI 2.3 to 4.2\%, p = 0.567) in men and 1.1\% (95\% CI 1.9 to 4.0\%, p = 0.483) in women.

CONCLUSIONS: An ABI risk model may improve prediction especially in individuals at intermediate risk and when performance of the base risk factor model is modest.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Ankle Brachial Index, Cardiovascular Diseases, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Models, Statistical, Predictive Value of Tests, Prognosis, Reproducibility of Results, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Time Factors, United States, Young Adult}, issn = {2047-4881}, doi = {10.1177/2047487313516564}, author = {Fowkes, F G R and Murray, G D and Butcher, I and Folsom, A R and Hirsch, A T and Couper, D J and deBacker, G and Kornitzer, M and Newman, A B and Sutton-Tyrrell, K C and Cushman, M and Lee, A J and Price, J F and D{\textquoteright}Agostino, R B and Murabito, J M and Norman, Pe and Masaki, K H and Bouter, L M and Heine, R J and Stehouwer, C D A and McDermott, M M and Stoffers, H E J H and Knottnerus, J A and Ogren, M and Hedblad, B and Koenig, W and Meisinger, C and Cauley, J A and Franco, Oh and Hunink, M G M and Hofman, A and Witteman, J C and Criqui, M H and Langer, R D and Hiatt, W R and Hamman, R F} } @article {6556, title = {Effect of genetic variants associated with plasma homocysteine levels on stroke risk.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {45}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jul}, pages = {1920-4}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Elevated total plasma homocysteine (tHcy) levels are known to be associated with increased risk of ischemic stroke (IS). Given that both tHcy and IS are heritable traits, we investigated a potential genetic relationship between homocysteine levels and stroke risk by assessing 18 polymorphisms previously associated with tHcy levels for their association with IS and its subtypes.

METHODS: Previous meta-analysis results from an international stroke collaborative network, METASTROKE, were used to assess association of the 18 tHcy-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 12 389 IS cases and 62 004 controls. We also investigated the associations in regions located within 50 kb from the 18 tHcy-related SNPs and the association of a genetic risk score, including the 18 SNPs.

RESULTS: One SNP located in the RASIP1 gene and a cluster of 3 SNPs located at and near SLC17A3 were significantly associated with IS (P<0.0003) after correcting for multiple testing. For stroke subtypes, the sentinel SNP located upstream of MUT was significantly associated with small-vessel disease (P=0.0022), whereas 1 SNP located in MTHFR was significantly associated with large-vessel disease (P=0.00019). A genetic risk score, including the 18 SNPs, did not show significant association with IS or its subtypes.

CONCLUSIONS: This study found several potential associations with IS and its subtypes: an association of an MUT variant with small-vessel disease, an MTHFR variant with large-vessel disease, and associations of RASIP1 and SLC17A3 variants with overall IS.

}, keywords = {Brain Ischemia, Cohort Studies, Europe, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genome, Homocysteine, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk, Stroke}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.114.005208}, author = {Cotlarciuc, Ioana and Malik, Rainer and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Ahmadi, Kourosh R and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Psaty, Bruce M and Fornage, Myriam and Hasan, Nazeeha and Rinne, Paul E and Ikram, M Arfan and Markus, Hugh S and Rosand, Jonathan and Mitchell, Braxton D and Kittner, Steven J and Meschia, James F and van Meurs, Joyce B J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Worrall, Bradford B and Dichgans, Martin and Sharma, Pankaj} } @article {6367, title = {Genome-wide association study for circulating tissue plasminogen activator levels and functional follow-up implicates endothelial STXBP5 and STX2.}, journal = {Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol}, volume = {34}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 May}, pages = {1093-101}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVE: Tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), a serine protease, catalyzes the conversion of plasminogen to plasmin, the major enzyme responsible for endogenous fibrinolysis. In some populations, elevated plasma levels of tPA have been associated with myocardial infarction and other cardiovascular diseases. We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies to identify novel correlates of circulating levels of tPA.

APPROACH AND RESULTS: Fourteen cohort studies with tPA measures (N=26 929) contributed to the meta-analysis. Three loci were significantly associated with circulating tPA levels (P<5.0{\texttimes}10(-8)). The first locus is on 6q24.3, with the lead single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP; rs9399599; P=2.9{\texttimes}10(-14)) within STXBP5. The second locus is on 8p11.21. The lead SNP (rs3136739; P=1.3{\texttimes}10(-9)) is intronic to POLB and <200 kb away from the tPA encoding the gene PLAT. We identified a nonsynonymous SNP (rs2020921) in modest linkage disequilibrium with rs3136739 (r(2)=0.50) within exon 5 of PLAT (P=2.0{\texttimes}10(-8)). The third locus is on 12q24.33, with the lead SNP (rs7301826; P=1.0{\texttimes}10(-9)) within intron 7 of STX2. We further found evidence for the association of lead SNPs in STXBP5 and STX2 with expression levels of the respective transcripts. In in vitro cell studies, silencing STXBP5 decreased the release of tPA from vascular endothelial cells, whereas silencing STX2 increased the tPA release. Through an in silico lookup, we found no associations of the 3 lead SNPs with coronary artery disease or stroke.

CONCLUSIONS: We identified 3 loci associated with circulating tPA levels, the PLAT region, STXBP5, and STX2. Our functional studies implicate a novel role for STXBP5 and STX2 in regulating tPA release.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cells, Cultured, Coronary Artery Disease, Endothelial Cells, Europe, Female, Gene Expression Regulation, Gene Silencing, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, R-SNARE Proteins, Risk Factors, Stroke, Syntaxin 1, Tissue Plasminogen Activator, Transfection, United States, Up-Regulation}, issn = {1524-4636}, doi = {10.1161/ATVBAHA.113.302088}, author = {Huang, Jie and Huffman, Jennifer E and Yamakuchi, Munekazu and Yamkauchi, Munekazu and Trompet, Stella and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and Chen, Wei-Min and Smith, Nicholas L and Kleber, Marcus E and Shin, So-Youn and Becker, Diane M and Tang, Weihong and Dehghan, Abbas and Johnson, Andrew D and Truong, Vinh and Folkersen, Lasse and Yang, Qiong and Oudot-Mellkah, Tiphaine and Buckley, Brendan M and Moore, Jason H and Williams, Frances M K and Campbell, Harry and Silbernagel, G{\"u}nther and Vitart, Veronique and Rudan, Igor and Tofler, Geoffrey H and Navis, Gerjan J and DeStefano, Anita and Wright, Alan F and Chen, Ming-Huei and de Craen, Anton J M and Worrall, Bradford B and Rudnicka, Alicja R and Rumley, Ann and Bookman, Ebony B and Psaty, Bruce M and Chen, Fang and Keene, Keith L and Franco, Oscar H and B{\"o}hm, Bernhard O and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Carter, Angela M and Jukema, J Wouter and Sattar, Naveed and Bis, Joshua C and Ikram, Mohammad A and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and McKnight, Barbara and Fornage, Myriam and Ford, Ian and Taylor, Kent and Slagboom, P Eline and McArdle, Wendy L and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Franco-Cereceda, Anders and Goodall, Alison H and Yanek, Lisa R and Furie, Karen L and Cushman, Mary and Hofman, Albert and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Folsom, Aaron R and Basu, Saonli and Matijevic, Nena and van Gilst, Wiek H and Wilson, James F and Westendorp, Rudi G J and Kathiresan, Sekar and Reilly, Muredach P and Tracy, Russell P and Polasek, Ozren and Winkelmann, Bernhard R and Grant, Peter J and Hillege, Hans L and Cambien, Francois and Stott, David J and Lowe, Gordon D and Spector, Timothy D and Meigs, James B and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Eriksson, Per and Becker, Lewis C and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel and Soranzo, Nicole and Williams, Scott M and Hayward, Caroline and van der Harst, Pim and Hamsten, Anders and Lowenstein, Charles J and Strachan, David P and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J} } @article {6600, title = {Integrating genetic, transcriptional, and functional analyses to identify 5 novel genes for atrial fibrillation.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {130}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Oct 7}, pages = {1225-35}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) affects >30 million individuals worldwide and is associated with an increased risk of stroke, heart failure, and death. AF is highly heritable, yet the genetic basis for the arrhythmia remains incompletely understood.

METHODS AND RESULTS: To identify new AF-related genes, we used a multifaceted approach, combining large-scale genotyping in 2 ethnically distinct populations, cis-eQTL (expression quantitative trait loci) mapping, and functional validation. Four novel loci were identified in individuals of European descent near the genes NEURL (rs12415501; relative risk [RR]=1.18; 95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.13-1.23; P=6.5{\texttimes}10(-16)), GJA1 (rs13216675; RR=1.10; 95\% CI, 1.06-1.14; P=2.2{\texttimes}10(-8)), TBX5 (rs10507248; RR=1.12; 95\% CI, 1.08-1.16; P=5.7{\texttimes}10(-11)), and CAND2 (rs4642101; RR=1.10; 95\% CI, 1.06-1.14; P=9.8{\texttimes}10(-9)). In Japanese, novel loci were identified near NEURL (rs6584555; RR=1.32; 95\% CI, 1.26-1.39; P=2.0{\texttimes}10(-25)) and CUX2 (rs6490029; RR=1.12; 95\% CI, 1.08-1.16; P=3.9{\texttimes}10(-9)). The top single-nucleotide polymorphisms or their proxies were identified as cis-eQTLs for the genes CAND2 (P=2.6{\texttimes}10(-19)), GJA1 (P=2.66{\texttimes}10(-6)), and TBX5 (P=1.36{\texttimes}10(-5)). Knockdown of the zebrafish orthologs of NEURL and CAND2 resulted in prolongation of the atrial action potential duration (17\% and 45\%, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS: We have identified 5 novel loci for AF. Our results expand the diversity of genetic pathways implicated in AF and provide novel molecular targets for future biological and pharmacological investigation.

}, keywords = {Aged, Animals, Atrial Fibrillation, Chromosome Mapping, Connexin 43, Europe, Female, Gene Knockdown Techniques, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genotype, Homeodomain Proteins, Humans, Japan, Male, Middle Aged, Muscle Proteins, Nuclear Proteins, Quantitative Trait Loci, Repressor Proteins, T-Box Domain Proteins, Transcription Factors, Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases, Zebrafish, Zebrafish Proteins}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.114.009892}, author = {Sinner, Moritz F and Tucker, Nathan R and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Ozaki, Kouichi and Smith, J Gustav and Trompet, Stella and Bis, Joshua C and Lin, Honghuang and Chung, Mina K and Nielsen, Jonas B and Lubitz, Steven A and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Magnani, Jared W and Ye, Jiangchuan and Gollob, Michael H and Tsunoda, Tatsuhiko and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Lichtner, Peter and Peters, Annette and Dolmatova, Elena and Kubo, Michiaki and Smith, Jonathan D and Psaty, Bruce M and Smith, Nicholas L and Jukema, J Wouter and Chasman, Daniel I and Albert, Christine M and Ebana, Yusuke and Furukawa, Tetsushi and Macfarlane, Peter W and Harris, Tamara B and Darbar, Dawood and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Holst, Anders G and Svendsen, Jesper H and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Isobe, Mitsuaki and Malik, Rainer and Dichgans, Martin and Rosand, Jonathan and Van Wagoner, David R and Benjamin, Emelia J and Milan, David J and Melander, Olle and Heckbert, Susan R and Ford, Ian and Liu, Yongmei and Barnard, John and Olesen, Morten S and Stricker, Bruno H C and Tanaka, Toshihiro and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Ellinor, Patrick T} } @article {6820, title = {Novel genetic markers associate with atrial fibrillation risk in Europeans and Japanese.}, journal = {J Am Coll Cardiol}, volume = {63}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Apr 1}, pages = {1200-10}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to identify nonredundant atrial fibrillation (AF) genetic susceptibility signals and examine their cumulative relations with AF risk.

BACKGROUND: AF-associated loci span broad genomic regions that may contain multiple susceptibility signals. Whether multiple signals exist at AF loci has not been systematically explored.

METHODS: We performed association testing conditioned on the most significant, independently associated genetic markers at 9 established AF loci using 2 complementary techniques in 64,683 individuals of European ancestry (3,869 incident and 3,302 prevalent AF cases). Genetic risk scores were created and tested for association with AF in Europeans and an independent sample of 11,309 individuals of Japanese ancestry (7,916 prevalent AF cases).

RESULTS: We observed at least 4 distinct AF susceptibility signals on chromosome 4q25 upstream of PITX2, but not at the remaining 8 AF loci. A multilocus score comprised 12 genetic markers demonstrated an estimated 5-fold gradient in AF risk. We observed a similar spectrum of risk associated with these markers in Japanese. Regions containing AF signals on chromosome 4q25 displayed a greater degree of evolutionary conservation than the remainder of the locus, suggesting that they may tag regulatory elements.

CONCLUSIONS: The chromosome 4q25 AF locus is architecturally complex and harbors at least 4 AF susceptibility signals in individuals of European ancestry. Similar polygenic AF susceptibility exists between Europeans and Japanese. Future work is necessary to identify causal variants, determine mechanisms by which associated loci predispose to AF, and explore whether AF susceptibility signals classify individuals at risk for AF and related morbidity.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Atrial Fibrillation, Chromosome Mapping, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 4, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Markers, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Homeodomain Proteins, Humans, Japan, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Transcription Factors}, issn = {1558-3597}, doi = {10.1016/j.jacc.2013.12.015}, author = {Lubitz, Steven A and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Lin, Honghuang and Arking, Dan E and Trompet, Stella and Li, Guo and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Chasman, Daniel I and Barnard, John and Kleber, Marcus E and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Ozaki, Kouichi and Smith, Albert V and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Walter, Stefan and Agarwal, Sunil K and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Chen, Lin Y and Everett, Brendan M and Ford, Ian and Franco, Oscar H and Harris, Tamara B and Hofman, Albert and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Mahida, Saagar and Kathiresan, Sekar and Kubo, Michiaki and Launer, Lenore J and Macfarlane, Peter W and Magnani, Jared W and McKnight, Barbara and McManus, David D and Peters, Annette and Psaty, Bruce M and Rose, Lynda M and Rotter, Jerome I and Silbernagel, Guenther and Smith, Jonathan D and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Stott, David J and Taylor, Kent D and Tomaschitz, Andreas and Tsunoda, Tatsuhiko and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Van Wagoner, David R and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Murabito, Joanne M and Sinner, Moritz F and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Felix, Stephan B and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Chung, Mina and Albert, Christine M and Stricker, Bruno H and Tanaka, Toshihiro and Heckbert, Susan R and Jukema, J Wouter and Alonso, Alvaro and Benjamin, Emelia J and Ellinor, Patrick T} } @article {7578, title = {Genome-wide association meta-analysis of fish and EPA+DHA consumption in 17 US and European cohorts.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {12}, year = {2017}, month = {2017}, pages = {e0186456}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Regular fish and omega-3 consumption may have several health benefits and are recommended by major dietary guidelines. Yet, their intakes remain remarkably variable both within and across populations, which could partly owe to genetic influences.

OBJECTIVE: To identify common genetic variants that influence fish and dietary eicosapentaenoic acid plus docosahexaenoic acid (EPA+DHA) consumption.

DESIGN: We conducted genome-wide association (GWA) meta-analysis of fish (n = 86,467) and EPA+DHA (n = 62,265) consumption in 17 cohorts of European descent from the CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology) Consortium Nutrition Working Group. Results from cohort-specific GWA analyses (additive model) for fish and EPA+DHA consumption were adjusted for age, sex, energy intake, and population stratification, and meta-analyzed separately using fixed-effect meta-analysis with inverse variance weights (METAL software). Additionally, heritability was estimated in 2 cohorts.

RESULTS: Heritability estimates for fish and EPA+DHA consumption ranged from 0.13-0.24 and 0.12-0.22, respectively. A significant GWA for fish intake was observed for rs9502823 on chromosome 6: each copy of the minor allele (FreqA = 0.015) was associated with 0.029 servings/day (~1 serving/month) lower fish consumption (P = 1.96x10-8). No significant association was observed for EPA+DHA, although rs7206790 in the obesity-associated FTO gene was among top hits (P = 8.18x10-7). Post-hoc calculations demonstrated 95\% statistical power to detect a genetic variant associated with effect size of 0.05\% for fish and 0.08\% for EPA+DHA.

CONCLUSIONS: These novel findings suggest that non-genetic personal and environmental factors are principal determinants of the remarkable variation in fish consumption, representing modifiable targets for increasing intakes among all individuals. Genes underlying the signal at rs72838923 and mechanisms for the association warrant further investigation.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Cohort Studies, Docosahexaenoic Acids, Eicosapentaenoic Acid, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Seafood, United States}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0186456}, author = {Mozaffarian, Dariush and Dashti, Hassan S and Wojczynski, Mary K and Chu, Audrey Y and Nettleton, Jennifer A and M{\"a}nnist{\"o}, Satu and Kristiansson, Kati and Reedik, M{\"a}gi and Lahti, Jari and Houston, Denise K and Cornelis, Marilyn C and van Rooij, Frank J A and Dimitriou, Maria and Kanoni, Stavroula and Mikkil{\"a}, Vera and Steffen, Lyn M and de Oliveira Otto, Marcia C and Qi, Lu and Psaty, Bruce and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Rotter, Jerome I and Harald, Kennet and Perola, Markus and Rissanen, Harri and Jula, Antti and Krista, Fischer and Mihailov, Evelin and Feitosa, Mary F and Ngwa, Julius S and Xue, Luting and Jacques, Paul F and Per{\"a}l{\"a}, Mia-Maria and Palotie, Aarno and Liu, Yongmei and Nalls, Nike A and Ferrucci, Luigi and Hernandez, Dena and Manichaikul, Ani and Tsai, Michael Y and Kiefte-de Jong, Jessica C and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rallidis, Loukianos and Ridker, Paul M and Rose, Lynda M and Buring, Julie E and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Viikari, Jorma and Lemaitre, Rozenn and Salomaa, Veikko and Knekt, Paul and Metspalu, Andres and Borecki, Ingrid B and Cupples, L Adrienne and Eriksson, Johan G and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Bandinelli, Stefania and Siscovick, David and Franco, Oscar H and Deloukas, Panos and Dedoussis, George and Chasman, Daniel I and Raitakari, Olli and Tanaka, Toshiko} } @article {8041, title = {Fatty acid biomarkers of dairy fat consumption and incidence of type 2 diabetes: A pooled analysis of prospective cohort studies.}, journal = {PLoS Med}, volume = {15}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 10}, pages = {e1002670}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: We aimed to investigate prospective associations of circulating or adipose tissue odd-chain fatty acids 15:0 and 17:0 and trans-palmitoleic acid, t16:1n-7, as potential biomarkers of dairy fat intake, with incident type 2 diabetes (T2D).

METHODS AND FINDINGS: Sixteen prospective cohorts from 12 countries (7 from the United States, 7 from Europe, 1 from Australia, 1 from Taiwan) performed new harmonised individual-level analysis for the prospective associations according to a standardised plan. In total, 63,682 participants with a broad range of baseline ages and BMIs and 15,180 incident cases of T2D over the average of 9 years of follow-up were evaluated. Study-specific results were pooled using inverse-variance-weighted meta-analysis. Prespecified interactions by age, sex, BMI, and race/ethnicity were explored in each cohort and were meta-analysed. Potential heterogeneity by cohort-specific characteristics (regions, lipid compartments used for fatty acid assays) was assessed with metaregression. After adjustment for potential confounders, including measures of adiposity (BMI, waist circumference) and lipogenesis (levels of palmitate, triglycerides), higher levels of 15:0, 17:0, and t16:1n-7 were associated with lower incidence of T2D. In the most adjusted model, the hazard ratio (95\% CI) for incident T2D per cohort-specific 10th to 90th percentile range of 15:0 was 0.80 (0.73-0.87); of 17:0, 0.65 (0.59-0.72); of t16:1n7, 0.82 (0.70-0.96); and of their sum, 0.71 (0.63-0.79). In exploratory analyses, similar associations for 15:0, 17:0, and the sum of all three fatty acids were present in both genders but stronger in women than in men (pinteraction < 0.001). Whereas studying associations with biomarkers has several advantages, as limitations, the biomarkers do not distinguish between different food sources of dairy fat (e.g., cheese, yogurt, milk), and residual confounding by unmeasured or imprecisely measured confounders may exist.

CONCLUSIONS: In a large meta-analysis that pooled the findings from 16 prospective cohort studies, higher levels of 15:0, 17:0, and t16:1n-7 were associated with a lower risk of T2D.

}, keywords = {Aged, Australia, Biomarkers, Dairy Products, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Dietary Fats, Europe, Fatty Acids, Fatty Acids, Monounsaturated, Female, Humans, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Prospective Studies, Sex Factors, Taiwan, United States}, issn = {1549-1676}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pmed.1002670}, author = {Imamura, Fumiaki and Fretts, Amanda and Marklund, Matti and Ardisson Korat, Andres V and Yang, Wei-Sin and Lankinen, Maria and Qureshi, Waqas and Helmer, Catherine and Chen, Tzu-An and Wong, Kerry and Bassett, Julie K and Murphy, Rachel and Tintle, Nathan and Yu, Chaoyu Ian and Brouwer, Ingeborg A and Chien, Kuo-Liong and Frazier-Wood, Alexis C and Del Gobbo, Liana C and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Geleijnse, Johanna M and Giles, Graham G and de Goede, Janette and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, William S and Hodge, Allison and Hu, Frank and Koulman, Albert and Laakso, Markku and Lind, Lars and Lin, Hung-Ju and McKnight, Barbara and Rajaobelina, Kalina and Riserus, Ulf and Robinson, Jennifer G and Samieri, Cecilia and Siscovick, David S and Soedamah-Muthu, Sabita S and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Sun, Qi and Tsai, Michael Y and Uusitupa, Matti and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Wareham, Nick J and Wu, Jason HY and Micha, Renata and Forouhi, Nita G and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Mozaffarian, Dariush} } @article {8507, title = {Blood Leukocyte DNA Methylation Predicts Risk of Future Myocardial Infarction and Coronary Heart Disease.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {140}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 08 20}, pages = {645-657}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: DNA methylation is implicated in coronary heart disease (CHD), but current evidence is based on small, cross-sectional studies. We examined blood DNA methylation in relation to incident CHD across multiple prospective cohorts.

METHODS: Nine population-based cohorts from the United States and Europe profiled epigenome-wide blood leukocyte DNA methylation using the Illumina Infinium 450k microarray, and prospectively ascertained CHD events including coronary insufficiency/unstable angina, recognized myocardial infarction, coronary revascularization, and coronary death. Cohorts conducted race-specific analyses adjusted for age, sex, smoking, education, body mass index, blood cell type proportions, and technical variables. We conducted fixed-effect meta-analyses across cohorts.

RESULTS: Among 11 461 individuals (mean age 64 years, 67\% women, 35\% African American) free of CHD at baseline, 1895 developed CHD during a mean follow-up of 11.2 years. Methylation levels at 52 CpG (cytosine-phosphate-guanine) sites were associated with incident CHD or myocardial infarction (false discovery rate<0.05). These CpGs map to genes with key roles in calcium regulation (ATP2B2, CASR, GUCA1B, HPCAL1), and genes identified in genome- and epigenome-wide studies of serum calcium (CASR), serum calcium-related risk of CHD (CASR), coronary artery calcified plaque (PTPRN2), and kidney function (CDH23, HPCAL1), among others. Mendelian randomization analyses supported a causal effect of DNA methylation on incident CHD; these CpGs map to active regulatory regions proximal to long non-coding RNA transcripts.

CONCLUSION: Methylation of blood-derived DNA is associated with risk of future CHD across diverse populations and may serve as an informative tool for gaining further insight on the development of CHD.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Cohort Studies, Coronary Disease, CpG Islands, DNA Methylation, Europe, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Incidence, Leukocytes, Male, Middle Aged, Myocardial Infarction, Population Groups, Prognosis, Prospective Studies, Risk, United States}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.118.039357}, author = {Agha, Golareh and Mendelson, Michael M and Ward-Caviness, Cavin K and Joehanes, Roby and Huan, Tianxiao and Gondalia, Rahul and Salfati, Elias and Brody, Jennifer A and Fiorito, Giovanni and Bressler, Jan and Chen, Brian H and Ligthart, Symen and Guarrera, Simonetta and Colicino, Elena and Just, Allan C and Wahl, Simone and Gieger, Christian and Vandiver, Amy R and Tanaka, Toshiko and Hernandez, Dena G and Pilling, Luke C and Singleton, Andrew B and Sacerdote, Carlotta and Krogh, Vittorio and Panico, Salvatore and Tumino, Rosario and Li, Yun and Zhang, Guosheng and Stewart, James D and Floyd, James S and Wiggins, Kerri L and Rotter, Jerome I and Multhaup, Michael and Bakulski, Kelly and Horvath, Steven and Tsao, Philip S and Absher, Devin M and Vokonas, Pantel and Hirschhorn, Joel and Fallin, M Daniele and Liu, Chunyu and Bandinelli, Stefania and Boerwinkle, Eric and Dehghan, Abbas and Schwartz, Joel D and Psaty, Bruce M and Feinberg, Andrew P and Hou, Lifang and Ferrucci, Luigi and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Matullo, Giuseppe and Peters, Annette and Fornage, Myriam and Assimes, Themistocles L and Whitsel, Eric A and Levy, Daniel and Baccarelli, Andrea A} } @article {9372, title = {Genome-Wide Association Study of Apparent Treatment-Resistant Hypertension in the CHARGE Consortium: The CHARGE Pharmacogenetics Working Group.}, journal = {Am J Hypertens}, volume = {32}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Nov 15}, pages = {1146-1153}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Only a handful of genetic discovery efforts in apparent treatment-resistant hypertension (aTRH) have been described.

METHODS: We conducted a case-control genome-wide association study of aTRH among persons treated for hypertension, using data from 10 cohorts of European ancestry (EA) and 5 cohorts of African ancestry (AA). Cases were treated with 3 different antihypertensive medication classes and had blood pressure (BP) above goal (systolic BP >= 140 mm Hg and/or diastolic BP >= 90 mm Hg) or 4 or more medication classes regardless of BP control (nEA = 931, nAA = 228). Both a normotensive control group and a treatment-responsive control group were considered in separate analyses. Normotensive controls were untreated (nEA = 14,210, nAA = 2,480) and had systolic BP/diastolic BP < 140/90 mm Hg. Treatment-responsive controls (nEA = 5,266, nAA = 1,817) had BP at goal (<140/90 mm Hg), while treated with one antihypertensive medication class. Individual cohorts used logistic regression with adjustment for age, sex, study site, and principal components for ancestry to examine the association of single-nucleotide polymorphisms with case-control status. Inverse variance-weighted fixed-effects meta-analyses were carried out using METAL.

RESULTS: The known hypertension locus, CASZ1, was a top finding among EAs (P = 1.1 {\texttimes} 10-8) and in the race-combined analysis (P = 1.5 {\texttimes} 10-9) using the normotensive control group (rs12046278, odds ratio = 0.71 (95\% confidence interval: 0.6-0.8)). Single-nucleotide polymorphisms in this locus were robustly replicated in the Million Veterans Program (MVP) study in consideration of a treatment-responsive control group. There were no statistically significant findings for the discovery analyses including treatment-responsive controls.

CONCLUSION: This genomic discovery effort for aTRH identified CASZ1 as an aTRH risk locus.

}, keywords = {Aged, Antihypertensive Agents, Black or African American, Blood Pressure, Case-Control Studies, DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferases, DNA Methyltransferase 3A, DNA-Binding Proteins, Drug Resistance, Dystrophin-Associated Proteins, Europe, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Middle Aged, Myosin Heavy Chains, Myosin Type V, Neuropeptides, Pharmacogenetics, Pharmacogenomic Variants, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Transcription Factors, United States, White People}, issn = {1941-7225}, doi = {10.1093/ajh/hpz150}, author = {Irvin, Marguerite R and Sitlani, Colleen M and Floyd, James S and Psaty, Bruce M and Bis, Joshua C and Wiggins, Kerri L and Whitsel, Eric A and St{\"u}rmer, Til and Stewart, James and Raffield, Laura and Sun, Fangui and Liu, Ching-Ti and Xu, Hanfei and Cupples, Adrienne L and Tanner, Rikki M and Rossing, Peter and Smith, Albert and Zilh{\~a}o, Nuno R and Launer, Lenore J and Noordam, Raymond and Rotter, Jerome I and Yao, Jie and Li, Xiaohui and Guo, Xiuqing and Limdi, Nita and Sundaresan, Aishwarya and Lange, Leslie and Correa, Adolfo and Stott, David J and Ford, Ian and Jukema, J Wouter and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Trompet, Stella and Palmas, Walter and Warren, Helen R and Hellwege, Jacklyn N and Giri, Ayush and O{\textquoteright}donnell, Christopher and Hung, Adriana M and Edwards, Todd L and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Arnett, Donna K and Avery, Christy L} } @article {8625, title = {Genetic loci associated with prevalent and incident myocardial infarction and coronary heart disease in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {15}, year = {2020}, month = {2020}, pages = {e0230035}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies have identified multiple genomic loci associated with coronary artery disease, but most are common variants in non-coding regions that provide limited information on causal genes and etiology of the disease. To overcome the limited scope that common variants provide, we focused our investigation on low-frequency and rare sequence variations primarily residing in coding regions of the genome.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Using samples of individuals of European ancestry from ten cohorts within the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium, both cross-sectional and prospective analyses were conducted to examine associations between genetic variants and myocardial infarction (MI), coronary heart disease (CHD), and all-cause mortality following these events. For prevalent events, a total of 27,349 participants of European ancestry, including 1831 prevalent MI cases and 2518 prevalent CHD cases were used. For incident cases, a total of 55,736 participants of European ancestry were included (3,031 incident MI cases and 5,425 incident CHD cases). There were 1,860 all-cause deaths among the 3,751 MI and CHD cases from six cohorts that contributed to the analysis of all-cause mortality. Single variant and gene-based analyses were performed separately in each cohort and then meta-analyzed for each outcome. A low-frequency intronic variant (rs988583) in PLCL1 was significantly associated with prevalent MI (OR = 1.80, 95\% confidence interval: 1.43, 2.27; P = 7.12 {\texttimes} 10-7). We conducted gene-based burden tests for genes with a cumulative minor allele count (cMAC) >= 5 and variants with minor allele frequency (MAF) < 5\%. TMPRSS5 and LDLRAD1 were significantly associated with prevalent MI and CHD, respectively, and RC3H2 and ANGPTL4 were significantly associated with incident MI and CHD, respectively. No loci were significantly associated with all-cause mortality following a MI or CHD event.

CONCLUSION: This study identified one known locus (ANGPTL4) and four new loci (PLCL1, RC3H2, TMPRSS5, and LDLRAD1) associated with cardiovascular disease risk that warrant further investigation.

}, keywords = {Aging, Coronary Artery Disease, Cross-Sectional Studies, Europe, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Myocardial Infarction, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prospective Studies}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0230035}, author = {Hahn, Julie and Fu, Yi-Ping and Brown, Michael R and Bis, Joshua C and de Vries, Paul S and Feitosa, Mary F and Yanek, Lisa R and Weiss, Stefan and Giulianini, Franco and Smith, Albert Vernon and Guo, Xiuqing and Bartz, Traci M and Becker, Diane M and Becker, Lewis C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Brody, Jennifer A and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Franco, Oscar H and Grove, Megan and Harris, Tamara B and Hofman, Albert and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Kral, Brian G and Launer, Lenore J and Markus, Marcello R P and Rice, Kenneth M and Rich, Stephen S and Ridker, Paul M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rotter, Jerome I and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Taylor, Kent D and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Yao, Jie and Chasman, Daniel I and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Mathias, Rasika A and Post, Wendy and Psaty, Bruce M and Dehghan, Abbas and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Morrison, Alanna C} }