@article {982, title = {IL-6 gene variation is associated with IL-6 and C-reactive protein levels but not cardiovascular outcomes in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Hum Genet}, volume = {122}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 Dec}, pages = {485-94}, abstract = {

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels increase with age and likely play a role in adverse health outcomes in older adults. The relationship between IL-6 gene tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and circulating IL-6 and CRP levels, cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes, and mortality in Caucasian (CA) and African American (AA) participants of the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) was evaluated using ANCOVA and Cox proportional hazards models. The minor allele of the promoter SNP 1510 and intronic SNP 3572 associates with significantly higher serum IL-6 and CRP levels in CA but not AA. The CRP association persisted after CA and AA populations were combined and after accounting for multiple comparisons. These associations did not carry through to cardiovascular disease outcomes. Decreased risk of stroke was identified in CA, with the minor allele of SNP 1111 (HRR 0.71, 95\% CI 0.52, 0.95), P = 0.02, and increased risk of CVD and all-cause mortality (HRR 1.31, 95\% CI 1.05-1.64) in AAs heterozygote for SNP 2989. While genetic variation in the IL-6 gene was associated with circulating IL-6 and especially with CRP concentrations in this study, there is little evidence for association between common IL-6 gene variation and adverse health outcomes in this population of older adults.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Aged, Alleles, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Gene Frequency, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Humans, Interleukin-6, Introns, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Promoter Regions, Genetic}, issn = {1432-1203}, doi = {10.1007/s00439-007-0428-x}, author = {Walston, Jeremy D and Fallin, M Daniele and Cushman, Mary and Lange, Leslie and Psaty, Bruce and Jenny, Nancy and Browner, Warren and Tracy, Russell and Durda, Peter and Reiner, Alex} } @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 {6552, title = {Meta-analysis of loci associated with age at natural menopause in African-American women.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {23}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Jun 15}, pages = {3327-42}, abstract = {

Age at menopause marks the end of a woman{\textquoteright}s reproductive life and its timing associates with risks for cancer, cardiovascular and bone disorders. GWAS and candidate gene studies conducted in women of European ancestry have identified 27 loci associated with age at menopause. The relevance of these loci to women of African ancestry has not been previously studied. We therefore sought to uncover additional menopause loci and investigate the relevance of European menopause loci by performing a GWAS meta-analysis in 6510 women with African ancestry derived from 11 studies across the USA. We did not identify any additional loci significantly associated with age at menopause in African Americans. We replicated the associations between six loci and age at menopause (P-value < 0.05): AMHR2, RHBLD2, PRIM1, HK3/UMC1, BRSK1/TMEM150B and MCM8. In addition, associations of 14 loci are directionally consistent with previous reports. We provide evidence that genetic variants influencing reproductive traits identified in European populations are also important in women of African ancestry residing in USA.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Age Factors, Chromosomes, Human, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Menopause, United States}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddu041}, author = {Chen, Christina T L and Liu, Ching-Ti and Chen, Gary K and Andrews, Jeanette S and Arnold, Alice M and Dreyfus, Jill and Franceschini, Nora and Garcia, Melissa E and Kerr, Kathleen F and Li, Guo and Lohman, Kurt K and Musani, Solomon K and Nalls, Michael A and Raffel, Leslie J and Smith, Jennifer and Ambrosone, Christine B and Bandera, Elisa V and Bernstein, Leslie and Britton, Angela and Brzyski, Robert G and Cappola, Anne and Carlson, Christopher S and Couper, David and Deming, Sandra L and Goodarzi, Mark O and Heiss, Gerardo and John, Esther M and Lu, Xiaoning and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Marciante, Kristin and McKnight, Barbara and Millikan, Robert and Nock, Nora L and Olshan, Andrew F and Press, Michael F and Vaiyda, Dhananjay and Woods, Nancy F and Taylor, Herman A and Zhao, Wei and Zheng, Wei and Evans, Michele K and Harris, Tamara B and Henderson, Brian E and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kooperberg, Charles and Liu, Yongmei and Mosley, Thomas H and Psaty, Bruce and Wellons, Melissa and Windham, Beverly G and Zonderman, Alan B and Cupples, L Adrienne and Demerath, Ellen W and Haiman, Christopher and Murabito, Joanne M and Rajkovic, Aleksandar} }