@article {835, title = {Major electrocardiographic abnormalities in persons aged 65 years and older (the Cardiovascular Health Study). Cardiovascular Health Study Collaborative Research Group.}, journal = {Am J Cardiol}, volume = {69}, year = {1992}, month = {1992 May 15}, pages = {1329-35}, abstract = {

Electrocardiographic abnormalities are often found in older patients, but their prevalence in free-living elderly populations is not well-defined. In addition, the clinical significance of many of these abnormalities is uncertain. The prevalence of major electrocardiographic abnormalities was determined in 5,150 adults aged greater than or equal to 65 years from the Cardiovascular Health Study--a study of risk factors for stroke and coronary heart disease in the elderly. Ventricular conduction defects, major Q/QS waves, left ventricular hypertrophy, isolated major ST-T-wave abnormalities, atrial fibrillation and first-degree atrioventricular block were collectively categorized as major electrocardiographic abnormalities. Prevalence of any major electrocardiographic abnormality was 29\% in the entire cohort, 19\% among 2,413 participants who reported no history of coronary artery disease or systemic hypertension, and 37\% among 2,737 participants with a history of coronary artery disease or hypertension. Prevalence of major electrocardiographic abnormalities was higher in men than in women regardless of history, and tended to increase with age. Major Q/QS waves were found in 5.2\%, and more than half were in those who did not report a previous myocardial infarction. Major electrocardiographic abnormalities are common in elderly men and women irrespective of the history of heart disease.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Arrhythmias, Cardiac, Chi-Square Distribution, Electrocardiography, Female, Heart Diseases, Humans, Logistic Models, Male, Prevalence, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, United States}, issn = {0002-9149}, doi = {10.1016/0002-9149(92)91231-r}, author = {Furberg, C D and Manolio, T A and Psaty, B M and Bild, D E and Borhani, N O and Newman, A and Tabatznik, B and Rautaharju, P M} } @article {1438, title = {Magnetic resonance abnormalities and cardiovascular disease in older adults. The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {25}, year = {1994}, month = {1994 Feb}, pages = {318-27}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Cerebral magnetic resonance imaging often detects abnormalities whose significance is unknown. The prevalence and correlates of findings such as ventricular enlargement, sulcal widening, and increased white matter signal intensity were examined in 303 men and women aged 65 to 95 years participating in a multicenter study of cardiovascular disease.

METHODS: Cerebral magnetic resonance imaging was performed and interpreted according to a standard protocol, and findings were correlated with measures of cardiovascular disease and its risk factors.

RESULTS: Measures of cerebral atrophy increased with age and were greater in men than in women (each P < .01). Ventricular enlargement and sulcal widening were associated with prior stroke, hypertension, diabetes, and white race (each P < .03). Extent of white matter hyperintensity was associated with age, prior stroke, hypertension, and use of diuretics (each P < .004). On multivariate analysis, age, male gender, white race, and prior stroke retained strong associations with increased ventricular and sulcal scores. After adjustment for age, prior stroke, and other risk factors, white matter hyperintensity was associated with atherosclerosis as measured by increased internal carotid artery thickness on ultrasound.

CONCLUSIONS: Cerebral atrophy and white matter hyperintensity are common in the elderly and are associated with age, prior stroke, and known cardiovascular risk factors. Though these findings have been suggested to represent normal aging, their wide variability and associations with cardiovascular disease argue against their inevitability with advancing age and support the need to identify modifiable risk factors for these abnormalities.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Analysis of Variance, Atrophy, Brain, Cerebral Ventricles, Cerebrovascular Disorders, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Regression Analysis, Risk Factors, Sex Factors}, issn = {0039-2499}, author = {Manolio, T A and Kronmal, R A and Burke, G L and Poirier, V and O{\textquoteright}Leary, D H and Gardin, J M and Fried, L P and Steinberg, E P and Bryan, R N} } @article {1420, title = {A method for using MR to evaluate the effects of cardiovascular disease on the brain: the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {AJNR Am J Neuroradiol}, volume = {15}, year = {1994}, month = {1994 Oct}, pages = {1625-33}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: To do a pilot study for the Cardiovascular Health Study (a population-based, longitudinal study of coronary heart disease and stroke in adults 65 years of age and older designed to identify risk factors related to cerebrovascular disease, particularly stroke): (a) to determine the feasibility of adding brain MR to the full-scale study; (b) to evaluate the reliability of standardized MR image interpretation in a multicenter study; and (c) to compare the prevalence of stroke determined by MR with that by clinical history.

METHODS: Protocol-defined MR studies were performed in 100 subjects with clinical histories of stroke and 203 subjects without reported histories of stroke. MR scans were independently evaluated by two trained neuroradiologists for the presence of small (< or = 3 mm) and large (> 3 mm) "infarctlike" lesions. The sizes of the cerebral sulci and lateral ventricles and the extent of white matter disease were graded on a scale of 0 to 9.

RESULTS: Eighty percent of the Cardiovascular Health Study participants who were invited to undergo MR studies agreed to do so; 95\% of those agreeing to the procedure successfully completed the exams. Intrareader and interreader reliability of infarctlike lesion identification was high for large lesions (kappa, 0.71 and 0.78, respectively) but not for small lesions (kappa, 0.71 and 0.32, respectively). Relaxed intrareader and interreader kappa scores for sulcal and ventricular sizes and extent of white matter disease were greater than 0.8 MR evidence of infarctlike lesions was present in 77\% of the participants with histories of stroke but was also present in 23\% of the participants without clinical histories of stroke. Seventy-nine percent of the infarctlike lesions were larger than 3 mm.

CONCLUSIONS: This preliminary study indicates that a large, prospective, epidemiologic study of elderly subjects using MR scans of the brain for identification of cerebrovascular disease is feasible and that the interpretative results are reproducible, and suggests that MR evidence of stroke is more prevalent than reported clinical history of stroke.

}, keywords = {Aged, Brain, Cerebral Infarction, Cerebral Ventricles, Cerebrovascular Disorders, Cohort Studies, Coronary Disease, Cross-Sectional Studies, Diagnosis, Differential, Feasibility Studies, Female, Humans, Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted, Incidence, Longitudinal Studies, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Mass Screening, Observer Variation, Pilot Projects, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, United States}, issn = {0195-6108}, author = {Bryan, R N and Manolio, T A and Schertz, L D and Jungreis, C and Poirier, V C and Elster, A D and Kronmal, R A} } @article {1449, title = {Methods of assessing prevalent cardiovascular disease in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Ann Epidemiol}, volume = {5}, year = {1995}, month = {1995 Jul}, pages = {270-7}, abstract = {

The objective of this article is to describe the methods of assessing cardiovascular conditions among older adults recruited to the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), a cohort study of risk factors for coronary disease and stroke. Medicare eligibility lists from four US communities were used to obtain a representative sample of 5201 community-dwelling elderly, who answered standardized questionnaires and underwent an extensive clinic examination at baseline. For each cardiovascular condition, self-reports were confirmed by components of the baseline examination or, if necessary, by a validation protocol that included either the review of medical records or surveys of treating physicians. Potential underreporting of a condition was detected either by the review of medical records at baseline for other self-reported conditions or, during prospective follow-up, by the investigation of potential incident events. For myocardial infarction, 75.5\% of the self-reports in men and 60.6\% in women were confirmed. Self-reported congestive heart failure was confirmed in 73.3\% of men and 76.6\% of women; stroke, in 59.6\% of men and 53.8\% of women; and transient ischemic attack, in 41.5\% of men and 37.0\% of women. Underreporting was also common. During prospective follow-up of an average of about 3 years per person, approximately 50\% of men and 38\% of women were hospitalized or investigated for at least one potential incident event; for each cardiovascular condition, about 1 to 4\% of those investigated during prospective follow-up were found to have had the cardiovascular condition prior to entry into the cohort.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

}, keywords = {Aged, Cerebrovascular Disorders, Cohort Studies, Coronary Disease, Electrocardiography, Epidemiologic Methods, False Negative Reactions, Female, Humans, Male, Population Surveillance, Prevalence, Prospective Studies, Reproducibility of Results, Risk Factors, Self Disclosure, United States}, issn = {1047-2797}, author = {Psaty, B M and Kuller, L H and Bild, D and Burke, G L and Kittner, S J and Mittelmark, M and Price, T R and Rautaharju, P M and Robbins, J} } @article {645, title = {Methods for obtaining and analyzing unattended polysomnography data for a multicenter study. Sleep Heart Health Research Group.}, journal = {Sleep}, volume = {21}, year = {1998}, month = {1998 Nov 01}, pages = {759-67}, abstract = {

This paper reviews the data collection, processing, and analysis approaches developed to obtain comprehensive unattended polysomnographic data for the Sleep Heart Health Study, a multicenter study of the cardiovascular consequences of sleep-disordered breathing. Protocols were developed and implemented to standardize in-home data collection procedures and to perform centralized sleep scoring. Of 7027 studies performed on 6697 participants, 5534 studies were determined to be technically acceptable (failure rate 5.3\%). Quality grades varied over time, reflecting the influences of variable technician experience, and equipment aging and modifications. Eighty-seven percent of studies were judged to be of "good" quality or better, and 75\% were judged to be of sufficient quality to provide reliable sleep staging and arousal data. Poor submental EMG (electromyogram) accounted for the largest proportion of poor signal grades (9\% of studies had <2 hours artifact free EMG signal). These data suggest that with rigorous training and clear protocols for data collection and processing, good-quality multichannel polysomnography data can be obtained for a majority of unattended studies performed in a research setting. Data most susceptible to poor signal quality are sleep staging and arousal data that require clear EEG (electroencephalograph) and EMG signals.

}, keywords = {Electroencephalography, Electromyography, Feasibility Studies, Humans, Licensure, Polysomnography, Research Design, Sleep Apnea Syndromes, Teaching}, issn = {0161-8105}, author = {Redline, S and Sanders, M H and Lind, B K and Quan, S F and Iber, C and Gottlieb, D J and Bonekat, W H and Rapoport, D M and Smith, P L and Kiley, J P} } @article {648, title = {M-mode echocardiographic predictors of six- to seven-year incidence of coronary heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, and mortality in an elderly cohort (the Cardiovascular Health Study).}, journal = {Am J Cardiol}, volume = {87}, year = {2001}, month = {2001 May 01}, pages = {1051-7}, abstract = {

Previous studies have identified a number of echocardiographic variables that predict cardiovascular disease (CVD) events and mortality, but have not focused on a large elderly cohort. The purpose of this study was to determine whether M-mode echocardiographic variables predicted all-cause mortality, incident coronary heart disease (CHD), congestive heart failure (CHF), and stroke in a large prospective, multicenter, population-based study. In the Cardiovascular Health Study, a biracial cohort of 5,888 men and women (mean age 73 years) underwent 2-dimensional M-mode echocardiographic measurements of left ventricular (LV) internal dimensions, wall thickness, mass and geometry, as well as measurement of left atrial dimension and assessment for mitral annular calcium. Participants were followed for 6 to 7 years for incident events; analyses excluded subjects with prevalent disease. One or more echocardiographic measurements were independent predictors of all-cause mortality and incident CHD, CHF, and stroke. After adjustment for anthropometric and traditional CVD risk factors, LV mass was significantly related to incident CHD, CHF, and stroke. The highest quartile of LV mass conferred a hazards ratio of 3.36, compared with the lowest quartile, for incident CHF. Furthermore, incident CHF-free survival was significantly lower for participants with LV mass in the highest versus the 2 lowest quartiles (86\% vs 97\%, respectively, at 2,500 days). Eccentric and concentric LV hypertrophy, respectively, conferred adjusted hazards ratios, compared with normal LV geometry, of 2.05 and 1.61 for incident CHD, and 2.95 and 3.32 for incident CHF. Thus, in an elderly biracial population, selected 2-dimensional M-mode echocardiographic measurements were important markers of subclinical disease and conferred independent prognostic information for incident CVD events, especially CHF and CHD.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Analysis of Variance, Coronary Disease, Echocardiography, Doppler, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Incidence, Male, Predictive Value of Tests, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Stroke}, issn = {0002-9149}, doi = {10.1016/s0002-9149(01)01460-6}, author = {Gardin, J M and McClelland, R and Kitzman, D and Lima, J A and Bommer, W and Klopfenstein, H S and Wong, N D and Smith, V E and Gottdiener, J} } @article {701, title = {Measures of cognitive function in persons with varying degrees of sleep-disordered breathing: the Sleep Heart Health Study.}, journal = {J Sleep Res}, volume = {11}, year = {2002}, month = {2002 Sep}, pages = {265-72}, abstract = {

Epidemiologic literature suggests that persons with clinically diagnosed sleep apnoea frequently have impaired cognitive function, but whether milder degrees of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) are associated with cognitive dysfunction in the general population is largely unknown. Approximately 1700 subjects free of clinically diagnosed SDB underwent at-home polysomnography (PSG) as part of the Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS) and completed three cognitive function tests within 1-2 years of their PSG: the Delayed Word Recall Test (DWR), the WAIS-R Digit Symbol Subtest (DSS), and the Word Fluency test (WF). A respiratory disturbance index (RDI) was calculated as the number of apnoeas and hypopnoeas per hour of sleep. After adjustment for age, education, occupation, field centre, diabetes, hypertension, body-mass index, use of CNS medications, and alcohol drinking status, there was no consistent association between the RDI and any of the three cognitive function measures. There was no evidence of a dose-response relation between the RDI and cognitive function scores and the adjusted mean scores by quartiles of RDI never differed from one another by more than 5\% for any of the tests. In this sample of free-living individuals with mostly mild to moderate levels of SDB, the degree of SDB appeared to be unrelated to three measures of cognitive performance.

}, keywords = {Aged, Body Mass Index, Brain, Cognition Disorders, Cohort Studies, Female, Humans, Hypoxia, Male, Middle Aged, Neuropsychological Tests, Oxygen, Polysomnography, Severity of Illness Index, Sleep Apnea, Central}, issn = {0962-1105}, doi = {10.1046/j.1365-2869.2002.00308.x}, author = {Boland, Lori L and Shahar, Eyal and Iber, Conrad and Knopman, David S and Kuo, Tracy F and Nieto, F Javier} } @article {717, title = {Multiple imputation of baseline data in the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, volume = {157}, year = {2003}, month = {2003 Jan 01}, pages = {74-84}, abstract = {

Most epidemiologic studies will encounter missing covariate data. Software packages typically used for analyzing data delete any cases with a missing covariate to perform a complete case analysis. The deletion of cases complicates variable selection when different variables are missing on different cases, reduces power, and creates the potential for bias in the resulting estimates. Recently, software has become available for producing multiple imputations of missing data that account for the between-imputation variability. The implementation of the software to impute missing baseline data in the setting of the Cardiovascular Health Study, a large, observational study, is described. Results of exploratory analyses using the imputed data were largely consistent with results using only complete cases, even in a situation where one third of the cases were excluded from the complete case analysis. There were few differences in the exploratory results across three imputations, and the combined results from the multiple imputations were very similar to results from a single imputation. An increase in power was evident and variable selection simplified when using the imputed data sets.

}, keywords = {African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Analysis of Variance, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cause of Death, Cohort Studies, Data Collection, Data Interpretation, Statistical, Epidemiologic Studies, Female, Humans, Linear Models, Male, Mathematical Computing, Models, Statistical, Predictive Value of Tests, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors, Software, Survival Analysis, United States, Ventricular Remodeling}, issn = {0002-9262}, doi = {10.1093/aje/kwf156}, author = {Arnold, Alice M and Kronmal, Richard A} } @article {780, title = {Medications and cardiovascular health in older adults: room for improvement in prevention and treatment.}, journal = {Am J Geriatr Cardiol}, volume = {13}, year = {2004}, month = {2004 May-Jun}, pages = {161-7}, keywords = {Aged, Antihypertensive Agents, Atrial Fibrillation, Cardiovascular Diseases, Diabetes Mellitus, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Heart Failure, Humans, Hyperlipidemias, Hypertension, Hypolipidemic Agents, Risk Factors}, issn = {1076-7460}, doi = {10.1111/j.1076-7460.2004.02124.x}, author = {Rhoads, Caroline S and Psaty, Bruce M and Olson, Jean L and Furberg, Curt D} } @article {796, title = {Mesenteric artery disease in the elderly.}, journal = {J Vasc Surg}, volume = {40}, year = {2004}, month = {2004 Jul}, pages = {45-52}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to estimate the population-based prevalence of mesenteric artery stenosis (MAS) and occlusion among independent elderly Americans.

METHOD: As part of an ancillary investigation to the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), participants in the Forsyth County, NC cohort had visceral duplex sonography of the celiac arteries and superior mesenteric arteries (SMAs). Critical MAS was defined by celiac peak systolic velocity >or=2.0 m/s and/or SMA peak systolic velocity >or=2.7 m/s. Occlusion of either vessel was defined by lack of a Doppler-shifted signal within the imaged artery. Demographic data, blood pressures, and blood lipid levels were collected as part of the baseline CHS examination. Participants{\textquoteright} weights were measured at baseline and before the duplex exam. Univariate tests of association were performed with two-way contingency tables, Student t tests, and Fisher exact tests. Multivariate associations were examined with logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS: A total of 553 CHS participants had visceral duplex sonography technically adequate to define the presence or absence of MAS. The study group had a mean age of 77.2 +/- 4.9 years and comprised 63\% women and 37\% men. Participant race was 76\% white and 23\% African-American. Ninety-seven participants (17.5\%) had MAS. There was no significant difference in age, race, gender, body mass index, blood pressure, cholesterol, or low-density lipoproteins for participants with or without MAS. Forward stepwise variable selection found renal artery stenosis (P =.008; odds ratio [OR], 2.85; 95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.31, 6.21) and high-density lipoprotein >40 (P =.02; OR, 3.03; 95\% CI, 1.17, 7.81) significantly associated with MAS in a multivariate logistic regression model. Eighty-three of the 97 participants with MAS (15.0\% of the cohort) had isolated celiac stenosis. Seven participants (1.3\% of the cohort) had combined celiac and SMA stenosis. Five participants (0.9\% of the cohort) had isolated SMA stenosis. Two participants (0.4\% of the cohort) had celiac occlusion. Considering all participants with MAS, there was no association with weight change. However, SMA stenosis and celiac occlusion demonstrated an independent association with annualized weight loss (P =.028; OR, 1.54; 95\% CI, 1.05, 2.26) and with renal artery stenosis (P =.001; OR, 9.48; 95\% CI, 2.62, 34.47).

CONCLUSION: This investigation provides the first population-based estimate of the prevalence of MAS among independent elderly Americans. MAS existed in 17.5\% of the study cohort. The majority had isolated celiac disease. SMA stenosis and celiac artery occlusion demonstrated a significant and independent association with weight loss and concurrent renal artery disease.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Arteriosclerosis, Celiac Artery, Cohort Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Mesenteric Arteries, Mesenteric Artery, Superior, Mesenteric Vascular Occlusion, Prevalence, Ultrasonography, Doppler, Duplex, Weight Loss}, issn = {0741-5214}, doi = {10.1016/j.jvs.2004.03.022}, author = {Hansen, Kimberley J and Wilson, David B and Craven, Timothy E and Pearce, Jeffrey D and English, William P and Edwards, Matthew S and Ayerdi, Juan and Burke, Gregory L} } @article {795, title = {Moderate renal impairment and risk of dementia among older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Cognition Study.}, journal = {J Am Soc Nephrol}, volume = {15}, year = {2004}, month = {2004 Jul}, pages = {1904-11}, abstract = {

Renal impairment is associated with an increased risk of carotid atherosclerosis and stroke, determinants of cognitive dysfunction and dementia. The purpose of this study was to determine whether moderate renal impairment is associated with incident dementia among community-dwelling older adults. Participants in the Cardiovascular Health Cognition Study without prevalent dementia (n = 3349) were included in the analysis. Incident dementia was confirmed through neurologic testing. Renal function at baseline was estimated by the inverse of serum creatinine (1/SCr); moderate renal impairment was defined as SCr > or = 1.3 mg/dl for women and > or = 1.5 mg/dl for men. Cox regression models were used to estimate the association of renal impairment with incident dementia. Because SCr is also a function of muscle mass, the authors determined whether the relationship between SCr and dementia was particularly strong among individuals without severe co-morbidity at baseline, as reflected by self-reported general health status. There were 477 incident dementia cases over a median 6 yr follow-up. After adjustment for potential confounders, moderate renal insufficiency was associated with a 37\% increased risk of dementia (95\% CI = 1.06 to 1.78). Similarly, a 0.5-unit decrement in 1/SCr (equivalent to an increase in SCr from 1.0 to 2.0 mg/dl) was associated with a 26\% increased risk (95\% CI = 1.02 to 1.60). These associations were present only among the 84\% of older adults who reported good-excellent health. Among those in good-excellent health, higher SCr was associated with vascular-type dementia but not Alzheimer-type dementia. Moderate renal impairment, reflected by a higher SCr, is associated with an excess risk of incident dementia among individuals in good-excellent health. Strategies to prevent or delay the onset of dementia in patients with moderate renal impairment are needed.

}, keywords = {Aged, Alzheimer Disease, Cardiovascular Diseases, Creatinine, Dementia, Dementia, Vascular, Female, Humans, Kidney, Kidney Diseases, Male, Muscles, Proportional Hazards Models}, issn = {1046-6673}, doi = {10.1097/01.asn.0000131529.60019.fa}, author = {Seliger, Stephen L and Siscovick, David S and Stehman-Breen, Catherine O and Gillen, Daniel L and Fitzpatrick, Annette and Bleyer, Anthony and Kuller, Lew H} } @article {861, title = {Methods for incorporating death into health-related variables in longitudinal studies.}, journal = {J Clin Epidemiol}, volume = {58}, year = {2005}, month = {2005 Nov}, pages = {1115-24}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Longitudinal studies of health over time may be misleading if some people die. Self-rated health (excellent to poor) and the SF-36 profile scores have been transformed to incorporate death. We applied the same approaches to incorporate death into activities of daily living difficulties (ADLs), IADLs, mini-mental state examination, depressive symptoms, blocks walked per week, bed days, the timed walk, body mass index and blood pressure.

STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: The Cardiovascular Health Study of 5,888 older adults, was followed up to 9 years. Mean age was 73 at baseline, and 658 had an incident stroke during follow-up.

METHODS: We recoded each variable as the probability of being healthy 1 year in the future (PHF), conditional on the current value of the variable. This was done for 11 health variables, using three definitions of healthy, and two estimation models. Deaths were set to zero, and mean PHF was plotted in the 3 years before and after an incident stroke.

RESULTS: Analyses without the deaths were too optimistic. The effect of stroke was greatest on hospitalization, self-rated health, and IADLs. Alternative transformation approaches had slightly different results.

CONCLUSION: These methods provide an additional approach for handling death in longitudinal studies.

}, keywords = {Activities of Daily Living, Death, Health Status Indicators, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Proportional Hazards Models}, issn = {0895-4356}, doi = {10.1016/j.jclinepi.2005.05.002}, author = {Diehr, Paula and Johnson, Laura Lee and Patrick, Donald L and Psaty, Bruce} } @article {832, title = {Morphometric analysis of gray matter volume in demented older adults: exploratory analysis of the cardiovascular health study brain MRI database.}, journal = {Neuroepidemiology}, volume = {24}, year = {2005}, month = {2005}, pages = {221-9}, abstract = {

We tested the feasibility of a fully automated brain MRI voxel count technique--automated labeling pathway (ALP)--in a sample of 15 demented and 13 cognitively normal women (age 75-85 years) participating to the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). We hypothesized that ALP would replicate well-established findings of the anatomical correlates of dementia. In particular, we hypothesized that ALP volumetric measures would: (1) significantly differ between cognitively normal and demented women in those brain areas that are established markers for diagnosis of dementia (temporal and medial temporal lobes, hippocampus, amygdala and parahippocampus) but not in other brain areas (e.g., occipital lobe, visual cortex, motor cortex) and (2) correlate with visual ratings of brain disease which have been previously collected as part of the CHS. ALP required minimal operator intervention (input of brain images and verification of misalignments) and employed computer time of about 1 h per brain. ALP detected significant focal volumetric differences in the limbic system (p values between groups for hippocampus and parahippocampus: 0.002 and 0.005, respectively), temporal lobe (p < 0.0001) and caudate (p = 0.009), but not in other brain areas (e.g. occipital lobe, visual or motor cortex). Furthermore, ALP measures of medial temporal lobe atrophy strongly correlated with CHS visual ratings of ventricular enlargement (r(2) = 0.6, p = 0.002 for medial temporal lobe). In conclusion, ALP-detected focal brain atrophy was strongly associated with dementia. Because of its fully automated design, ALP technique is an ideal candidate to assess whether volumetric measures of specific areas can discriminate dementia better than currently available measures of global brain atrophy in large epidemiological studies.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Brain, Dementia, Educational Status, Feasibility Studies, Female, Health Status, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Organ Size, Reproducibility of Results}, issn = {0251-5350}, doi = {10.1159/000085140}, author = {Rosano, C and Becker, J and Lopez, O and Lopez-Garcia, P and Carter, C S and Newman, A and Kuller, L and Aizenstein, H} } @article {918, title = {Metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease in older people: The cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {54}, year = {2006}, month = {2006 Sep}, pages = {1317-24}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To assess the prospective association between metabolic syndrome (MetS) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in older people and to evaluate the effect of lowering the threshold for impaired fasting glucose (IFG) on the prevalence of IFG and MetS and the risk of CVD.

DESIGN: Prospective cohort study.

SETTING: Four field centers in U.S. communities.

PARTICIPANTS: Three thousand five hundred eighty-five subjects in the Cardiovascular Health Study free of diabetes mellitus and CVD at baseline (mean age 72, 62\% female, 14\% black).

MEASUREMENTS: Baseline measures of MetS components and adjudicated incident CVD events. MetS (2001) was defined first using the original criteria from the Third Adult Treatment Panel Report of the National Cholesterol Education Program (> or =3 of the following: large waist circumference (women >88 cm, men >102 cm), elevated triglycerides (> or =1.70 mmol/L), low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (men <1.04 mmol/L, women <1.30 mmol/L), elevated fasting glucose (6.1-6.9 mmol/L), and high blood pressure (> or =130/85 mmHg or self-reported use of medications for hypertension). Subjects were also classified according to the revised definition of the MetS (2005) that applies the lower threshold for fasting glucose (5.6-6.9 mmol/L).

RESULTS: During follow-up (median 11 years), 818 coronary heart disease (CHD), 401 stroke, and 554 congestive heart failure (CHF) events occurred. Age- and race-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for CHD, stroke, and CHF were 1.30 (95\% confidence interval (CI) = 1.07-1.57), 0.94 (95\% CI = 0.73-1.21), and 1.40 (95\% CI = 1.12-1.76) for women and 1.35 (95\% CI = 1.10-1.66), 1.51 (95\% CI = 1.08-2.12), and 1.47 (95\% CI = 1.14-1.90) for men, respectively. Overall, women and men with MetS (2005) were 20\% to 30\% more likely to experience any CVD event than subjects without MetS (2005). Using the lower cut-point for IFG resulted in a near tripling in IFG prevalence (16\% to 46\%) and an additional 9\% classified with MetS (2005) but HRs similar to those estimated from the original MetS (2001) criteria. High blood pressure was the component most strongly associated with incident CHD.

CONCLUSION: Results from this study of an elderly, population-based cohort provide support for earlier investigations in primarily middle-aged populations that link the presence of MetS with the development of CVD and further underscore the importance of recognizing and treating its individual components, particularly high blood pressure.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Blood Glucose, Cardiovascular Diseases, Cohort Studies, European Continental Ancestry Group, Fasting, Female, Humans, Incidence, Male, Metabolic Syndrome, Risk Factors, Sex Factors}, issn = {0002-8614}, doi = {10.1111/j.1532-5415.2006.00862.x}, author = {McNeill, Ann Marie and Katz, Ronit and Girman, Cynthia J and Rosamond, Wayne D and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Barzilay, Joshua I and Tracy, Russell P and Savage, Peter J and Jackson, Sharon A} } @article {884, title = {Mortality and cardiovascular risk across the ankle-arm index spectrum: results from the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {113}, year = {2006}, month = {2006 Jan 24}, pages = {388-93}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: A low ankle-arm index (AAI) is a strong predictor of mortality and cardiovascular events. A high AAI also appears to be associated with higher mortality risk in select populations. However, mortality and cardiovascular risk across the AAI spectrum have not been described in a more broadly defined population.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We examined total and cardiovascular mortality and cardiovascular events across the AAI spectrum among 5748 participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). The mean age of the sample population was 73+/-6 years, and the sample included 3289 women (57\%) and 883 blacks (15\%). The median duration of follow-up was 11.1 (0.1 to 12) years for mortality and 9.6 (0.1 to 12.1) years for cardiovascular events. There were 2311 deaths (953 of which were cardiovascular) and 1491 cardiovascular events during follow-up. After adjustment for potential confounders, AAI measurements < or =0.60 (hazard ratio [HR] 1.82, 95\% CI 1.42 to 2.32), 0.61 to 0.7 (HR 2.08, 95\% CI 1.61 to 2.69), 0.71 to 0.8 (HR 1.80, 95\% CI 1.44 to 2.26), 0.81 to 0.9 (HR 1.73 95\% CI 1.43 to 2.11), 0.91 to 1.0 (HR 1.40, 95\% CI 1.20 to 1.63), and >1.40 (HR 1.57, 95\% CI 1.07 to 2.31) were associated with higher mortality risk from all causes compared with the referent group (AAI 1.11 to 1.20). The pattern was similar for cardiovascular mortality. For cardiovascular events, risk was higher at all AAI levels <1 but not for AAI levels >1.4 (HR 1.00, 95\% CI 0.57 to 1.74). The association of a high AAI with mortality was stronger in men than in women and in younger than in older cohort members.

CONCLUSIONS: In a cohort of community-dwelling elders, mortality risk was higher than the referent category of 1.11 to 1.2 among participants with AAI values above the traditional cutpoint of 0.9 (ie, 0.91 to 1.0 and >1.4), and the specific association of AAI with mortality varied by age and gender.

}, keywords = {Aged, Ankle, Arm, Blood Pressure, Body Mass Index, Cholesterol, LDL, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Peripheral Vascular Diseases, Risk Factors, Smoking}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.105.570903}, author = {O{\textquoteright}Hare, Ann M and Katz, Ronit and Shlipak, Michael G and Cushman, Mary and Newman, Anne B} } @article {923, title = {Mortality in pharmacologically treated older adults with diabetes: the Cardiovascular Health Study, 1989-2001.}, journal = {PLoS Med}, volume = {3}, year = {2006}, month = {2006 Oct}, pages = {e400}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus (DM) confers an increased risk of mortality in young and middle-aged individuals and in women. It is uncertain, however, whether excess DM mortality continues beyond age 75 years, is related to type of hypoglycemic therapy, and whether women continue to be disproportionately affected by DM into older age.

METHODS AND FINDINGS: From the Cardiovascular Health Study, a prospective study of 5,888 adults, we examined 5,372 participants aged 65 y or above without DM (91.2\%), 322 with DM treated with oral hypoglycemic agents (OHGAs) (5.5\%), and 194 with DM treated with insulin (3.3\%). Participants were followed (1989-2001) for total, cardiovascular disease (CVD), coronary heart disease (CHD), and non-CVD/noncancer mortality. Compared with non-DM participants, those treated with OHGAs or insulin had adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for total mortality of 1.33 (95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.10 to 1.62) and 2.04 (95\% CI, 1.62 to 2.57); CVD mortality, 1.99 (95\% CI, 1.54 to 2.57) and 2.16 (95\% CI, 1.54 to 3.03); CHD mortality, 2.47 (95\% CI, 1.89 to 3.24) and 2.75 (95\% CI, 1.95 to 3.87); and infectious and renal mortality, 1.35 (95\% CI, 0.70 to 2.59) and 6.55 (95\% CI, 4.18 to 10.26), respectively. The interaction of age (65-74 y versus > or =75 y) with DM was not significant. Women treated with OHGAs had a similar HR for total mortality to men, but a higher HR when treated with insulin.

CONCLUSIONS: DM mortality risk remains high among older adults in the current era of medical care. Mortality risk and type of mortality differ between OHGA and insulin treatment. Women treated with insulin therapy have an especially high mortality risk. Given the high absolute CVD mortality in older people, those with DM warrant aggressive CVD risk factor reduction.

}, keywords = {Administration, Oral, Aged, Cardiovascular Diseases, Coronary Disease, Diabetes Mellitus, Female, Humans, Hypoglycemic Agents, Insulin, Male, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Risk Assessment, Sex Distribution}, issn = {1549-1676}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pmed.0030400}, author = {Kronmal, Richard A and Barzilay, Joshua I and Smith, Nicholas L and Psaty, Bruce M and Kuller, Lewis H and Burke, Gregory L and Furberg, Curt} } @article {1033, title = {Metabolic syndrome and mortality in older adults: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Arch Intern Med}, volume = {168}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 May 12}, pages = {969-78}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: The utility of metabolic syndrome (MetS) for predicting mortality among older adults, the highest-risk population, is not well established. In addition, few studies have compared the predictive utility of MetS to that of its individual risk factors.

METHODS: We evaluated relationships of MetS (as defined by the National Cholesterol Education Program Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults [Adult Treatment Panel III (ATPIII)], International Diabetes Foundation [IDF], and World Health Organization [WHO]) and individual MetS criteria with mortality between 1989 and 2004 among 4258 US adults 65 years or older and free of prevalent cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a multicenter, population-based, prospective cohort. Total, CVD, and non-CVD mortality were evaluated. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate the mortality hazard ratio (relative risk [RR]) predicted by MetS.

RESULTS: At baseline (mean age, 73 years), 31\% of men and 38\% of women had MetS (ATPIII). During 15 years of follow-up, 2116 deaths occurred. After multivariable adjustment, compared with persons without MetS, those with MetS had a 22\% higher mortality (RR, 1.22; 95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.11-1.34). Higher risk with MetS was confined to persons having elevated fasting glucose level (EFG) (defined as > or = 110 mg/dL [> or = 6.1 mmol/L] or treated diabetes mellitus) (RR, 1.41; 95\% CI, 1.27-1.57) or hypertension (RR, 1.26; 95\% CI, 1.15-1.39) as one of the criteria; persons having MetS without EFG (RR, 0.97; 95\% CI, 0.85-1.11) or MetS without hypertension (RR, 0.92; 95\% CI, 0.71-1.19) did not have higher risk. Evaluating MetS criteria individually, we found that only hypertension and EFG predicted higher mortality; persons having both hypertension and EFG had 82\% higher mortality (RR, 1.82; 95\% CI, 1.58-109). Substantially higher proportions of deaths were attributable to EFG and hypertension (population attributable risk fraction [PAR\%], 22.2\%) than to MetS (PAR\%, 6.3\%). Results were similar when we used WHO or IDF criteria, when we evaluated different cut points of each individual criterion, and when we evaluated CVD mortality.

CONCLUSION: These findings suggest limited utility of MetS for predicting total or CVD mortality in older adults compared with assessment of fasting glucose and blood pressure alone.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Blood Glucose, Fasting, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Metabolic Syndrome, Multivariate Analysis, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Studies, Risk Assessment, United States}, issn = {1538-3679}, doi = {10.1001/archinte.168.9.969}, author = {Mozaffarian, Dariush and Kamineni, Aruna and Prineas, Ronald J and Siscovick, David S} } @article {1044, title = {Metabolic syndrome, endothelial dysfunction, and risk of cardiovascular events: the Northern Manhattan Study (NOMAS).}, journal = {Am Heart J}, volume = {156}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Aug}, pages = {405-10}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) predisposes to cardiovascular disease. Endothelial dysfunction is thought to be an important factor in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. We tested the hypothesis that both MetS and endothelial dysfunction are vascular risk factors and provide additive prognostic values in predicting cardiovascular events in a multiethnic community sample.

METHODS: The study population consisted of 819 subjects (467 female, mean age 66.5 +/- 8.8 years, 66\% Hispanic) enrolled in the NOMAS. Metabolic syndrome was defined using the revised Adult Treatment Panel III criteria. Brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) was measured using high-resolution ultrasound. Endothelial dysfunction was defined as FMD <8.44\% (lower 3 quartiles). Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess the effect of MetS and endothelial dysfunction on risk of cardiovascular events.

RESULTS: During 81 +/- 21 months of follow-up, events occurred in 84 subjects. Metabolic syndrome was independently associated with cardiovascular events in a multivariate model, including cardiovascular risk factors (adjusted hazard ratio 2.08, 95\% CI 1.27-3.40). Subjects with both MetS and endothelial dysfunction were at higher risk for cardiovascular events than those with either one of them alone (adjusted hazard ratio 2.60, 95\% CI 1.14-5.92).

CONCLUSIONS: Metabolic syndrome is associated with incident cardiovascular events. Combined use of MetS and FMD identifies those who are at higher risk of cardiovascular events. Metabolic syndrome and noninvasive FMD testing can be used concurrently for cardiovascular risk prediction.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Brachial Artery, Endothelium, Vascular, Female, Humans, Kaplan-Meier Estimate, Male, Metabolic Syndrome, Middle Aged, Prognosis, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Stroke, Vascular Diseases}, issn = {1097-6744}, doi = {10.1016/j.ahj.2008.02.022}, author = {Suzuki, Takeki and Hirata, Kumiko and Elkind, Mitchell S V and Jin, Zhezhen and Rundek, Tanja and Miyake, Yumiko and Boden-Albala, Bernadette and Di Tullio, Marco R and Sacco, Ralph and Homma, Shunichi} } @article {1129, title = {Meta-analysis: retinal vessel caliber and risk for coronary heart disease.}, journal = {Ann Intern Med}, volume = {151}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Sep 15}, pages = {404-13}, abstract = {

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Arterioles, Biomarkers, Coronary Disease, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Proportional Hazards Models, Retinal Vessels, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Venules}, issn = {1539-3704}, author = {McGeechan, Kevin and Liew, Gerald and Macaskill, Petra and Irwig, Les and Klein, Ronald and Klein, Barbara E K and Wang, Jie Jin and Mitchell, Paul and Vingerling, Johannes R and Dejong, Paulus T V M and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Breteler, Monique M B and Shaw, Jonathan and Zimmet, Paul and Wong, Tien Y} } @article {1073, title = {Metabolic syndrome and risk of venous thromboembolism: Longitudinal Investigation of Thromboembolism Etiology.}, journal = {J Thromb Haemost}, volume = {7}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 May}, pages = {746-51}, abstract = {

SUMMARY BACKGROUND: In a recent case-control study, the odds of metabolic syndrome (MetSyn) among deep vein thrombosis cases were almost twice those among controls. We tested the hypothesis that the incidence of non-cancer-related venous thromboembolism (VTE) is higher among adults with MetSyn and further, that associations are stronger for idiopathic than secondary VTE.

METHODS: A total of 20 374 middle-aged and elderly adults were followed for over 12 years for incident VTE in the Longitudinal Investigation of Thromboembolism Etiology (LITE). All hospitalizations were identified and VTEs validated by chart review. Baseline MetSyn was defined using ATP III guidelines, including >or=3 of the following components: abdominal obesity, elevated blood pressure, low HDL-cholesterol, high triglycerides and high glucose. Because sex modified the relation between MetSyn and VTE (p(interaction) = 0.001), proportional hazards regression analyses were stratified by sex to assess the associations of MetSyn and its components with risk of incident non-cancer-related VTE, adjusting for potential confounders.

RESULTS: Incident VTE (n = 358) included 196 idiopathic events. Baseline MetSyn was associated with risk of total VTE (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.84, 95\% CI = 1.30, 2.59) and idiopathic VTE (HR = 1.59, 95\% CI = 1.02, 2.47) among men, but not women. The association was largely attributable to abdominal obesity (HR of VTE = 2.10, 95\% CI = 1.51, 2.93, in men; HR of VTE = 1.70, 95\% CI = 1.24, 2.34, in women), with no additional contribution by the other MetSyn components.

CONCLUSION: Although abdominal obesity was associated with increased risk of VTE in both men and women, MetSyn and its other components do not seem important in VTE etiology.

}, keywords = {Blood Coagulation Factors, Blood Glucose, Blood Pressure, Body Mass Index, Cohort Studies, Female, Fibrinogen, Humans, Lipids, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Metabolic Syndrome, Proportional Hazards Models, Risk Factors, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {1538-7836}, doi = {10.1111/j.1538-7836.2009.03295.x}, author = {Steffen, L M and Cushman, M and Peacock, J M and Heckbert, S R and Jacobs, D R and Rosamond, W D and Folsom, A R} } @article {1085, title = {Midlife and late-life obesity and the risk of dementia: cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Arch Neurol}, volume = {66}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Mar}, pages = {336-42}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: While high adiposity in middle age appears to be related to greater dementia risk, studies exploring this association in the elderly are conflicting.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate associations between midlife and late-life obesity and risk of dementia.

DESIGN: Prospective study with mean follow-up of 5.4 years (1992-1994 through 1999).

SETTING: Community-dwelling sample in 4 US sites recruited from Medicare eligibility files.

PARTICIPANTS: A total of 2798 adults without dementia (mean age, 74.7 years; 59.1\% women) participating in the Cardiovascular Health Study who underwent magnetic resonance imaging were measured for height and weight at baseline at age 65 years or older (late life), and self-reported weight at age 50 years (midlife). Body mass index (BMI) (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) was calculated at both times.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Dementia, Alzheimer disease, and vascular dementia classified by a multidisciplinary committee using standardized criteria.

RESULTS: Classification resulted in 480 persons with incident dementia, 245 with Alzheimer disease (no vascular dementia), and 213 with vascular dementia (with or without Alzheimer disease). In evaluations of midlife obesity, an increased risk of dementia was found for obese (BMI >30) vs normal-weight (BMI 20-25) persons, adjusted for demographics (hazard ratio [HR], 1.39; 95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.03-1.87) and for cardiovascular risk factors (1.36; 0.94-1.95). The risk estimates were reversed in assessments of late-life BMI. Underweight persons (BMI <20) had an increased risk of dementia (1.62; 1.02-2.64), whereas being overweight (BMI >25-30) was not associated (0.92; 0.72-1.18) and being obese reduced the risk of dementia (0.63; 0.44-0.91) compared with those with normal BMI.

CONCLUSION: These results help explain the "obesity paradox" as differences in dementia risk across time are consistent with physical changes in the trajectory toward disability.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Alzheimer Disease, Anthropometry, Body Mass Index, Dementia, Vascular, Evaluation Studies as Topic, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Prospective Studies, Risk, Survival Analysis}, issn = {1538-3687}, doi = {10.1001/archneurol.2008.582}, author = {Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Kuller, Lewis H and Lopez, Oscar L and Diehr, Paula and O{\textquoteright}Meara, Ellen S and Longstreth, W T and Luchsinger, Jos{\'e} A} } @article {1071, title = {Mild cognitive impairment and alzheimer disease: patterns of altered cerebral blood flow at MR imaging.}, journal = {Radiology}, volume = {250}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Mar}, pages = {856-66}, abstract = {

PURPOSE: To examine regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in incident mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer disease (AD) by using continuous arterial spin-labeling (CASL) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was approved by the local institutional review board and was compliant with HIPAA regulations. Informed consent was obtained. rCBF was measured in 38 control subjects, 29 MCI patients, and 37 AD patients who were participating in a longitudinal epidemiologic study. Multisection CASL MR imaging with alternating single and double adiabatic inversion pulses and ramp-sampled echo-planar imaging were performed to acquire 19 contiguous axial sections. Voxel-level rCBF was compared among groups by using an analysis of variance design; clusters of voxels with significant group differences were identified. Multiple regression models controlled for age, sex, and presence of hypertension and related the mean rCBF in those clusters to the presence of MCI and AD.

RESULTS: MCI and AD patients had decreased rCBF in the posterior cingulate gyrus (P = .01) with extension to the medial precuneus compared with that in control subjects. MCI patients had increased rCBF in the left hippocampus (P < .001), right amygdala (P = .007), and rostral head of the right caudate nucleus and ventral putamen and globus pallidus (P = .003) compared with that in control subjects. AD patients had decreased rCBF relative to that in control subjects and MCI patients in the left inferior parietal (P = .005), left lateral frontal (P < .001), left superior temporal (P = .001), and left orbitofrontal (P = .003) cortices. AD patients had increased rCBF in the right anterior cingulate gyrus (P = .02) compared with that in control subjects.

CONCLUSION: The transition from normal cognition to AD is associated with dynamic pathologic processes in the brain, and this is reflected by both decreases and increases in rCBF. Increases in rCBF suggest a cellular and vascular compensatory process associated with incipient AD.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL: http://radiology.rsnajnls.org/cgi/content/full/2503080751/DC1.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alzheimer Disease, Brain, Cerebrovascular Circulation, Cognition Disorders, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male}, issn = {1527-1315}, doi = {10.1148/radiol.2503080751}, author = {Dai, Weiying and Lopez, Oscar L and Carmichael, Owen T and Becker, James T and Kuller, Lewis H and Gach, H Michael} } @article {1074, title = {Multiple independent genetic factors at NOS1AP modulate the QT interval in a multi-ethnic population.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {4}, year = {2009}, month = {2009}, pages = {e4333}, abstract = {

Extremes of electrocardiographic QT interval are associated with increased risk for sudden cardiac death (SCD); thus, identification and characterization of genetic variants that modulate QT interval may elucidate the underlying etiology of SCD. Previous studies have revealed an association between a common genetic variant in NOS1AP and QT interval in populations of European ancestry, but this finding has not been extended to other ethnic populations. We sought to characterize the effects of NOS1AP genetic variants on QT interval in the multi-ethnic population-based Dallas Heart Study (DHS, n = 3,072). The SNP most strongly associated with QT interval in previous samples of European ancestry, rs16847548, was the most strongly associated in White (P = 0.005) and Black (P = 3.6 x 10(-5)) participants, with the same direction of effect in Hispanics (P = 0.17), and further showed a significant SNP x sex-interaction (P = 0.03). A second SNP, rs16856785, uncorrelated with rs16847548, was also associated with QT interval in Blacks (P = 0.01), with qualitatively similar results in Whites and Hispanics. In a previously genotyped cohort of 14,107 White individuals drawn from the combined Atherosclerotic Risk in Communities (ARIC) and Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) cohorts, we validated both the second locus at rs16856785 (P = 7.63 x 10(-8)), as well as the sex-interaction with rs16847548 (P = 8.68 x 10(-6)). These data extend the association of genetic variants in NOS1AP with QT interval to a Black population, with similar trends, though not statistically significant at P<0.05, in Hispanics. In addition, we identify a strong sex-interaction and the presence of a second independent site within NOS1AP associated with the QT interval. These results highlight the consistent and complex role of NOS1AP genetic variants in modulating QT interval.

}, keywords = {Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing, Adolescent, Adult, African Americans, Aged, Death, Sudden, Cardiac, Electrocardiography, Ethnic Groups, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Heart Diseases, Heart Rate, Hispanic Americans, Humans, Linear Models, Linkage Disequilibrium, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sex Factors, Young Adult}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0004333}, author = {Arking, Dan E and Khera, Amit and Xing, Chao and Kao, W H Linda and Post, Wendy and Boerwinkle, Eric and Chakravarti, Aravinda} } @article {1099, title = {Multiple loci associated with indices of renal function and chronic kidney disease.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {41}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Jun}, pages = {712-7}, abstract = {

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has a heritable component and is an important global public health problem because of its high prevalence and morbidity. We conducted genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to identify susceptibility loci for glomerular filtration rate, estimated by serum creatinine (eGFRcrea) and cystatin C (eGFRcys), and CKD (eGFRcrea < 60 ml/min/1.73 m(2)) in European-ancestry participants of four population-based cohorts (ARIC, CHS, FHS, RS; n = 19,877; 2,388 CKD cases), and tested for replication in 21,466 participants (1,932 CKD cases). We identified significant SNP associations (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) with CKD at the UMOD locus, with eGFRcrea at UMOD, SHROOM3 and GATM-SPATA5L1, and with eGFRcys at CST and STC1. UMOD encodes the most common protein in human urine, Tamm-Horsfall protein, and rare mutations in UMOD cause mendelian forms of kidney disease. Our findings provide new insights into CKD pathogenesis and underscore the importance of common genetic variants influencing renal function and disease.

}, keywords = {Chromosome Mapping, Cohort Studies, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Kidney, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Mucoproteins, Netherlands, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Prevalence, Uromodulin}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.377}, author = {K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Glazer, Nicole L and Dehghan, Abbas and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Katz, Ronit and Li, Man and Yang, Qiong and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Launer, Lenore J and Harris, Tamara B and Smith, Albert V and Arking, Dan E and Astor, Brad C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Ehret, Georg B and Ruczinski, Ingo and Scharpf, Robert B and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and de Boer, Ian H and Haritunians, Talin and Lumley, Thomas and Sarnak, Mark and Siscovick, David and Benjamin, Emelia J and Levy, Daniel and Upadhyay, Ashish and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Hofman, Albert and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Chasman, Daniel I and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Ridker, Paul M and Kao, W H Linda and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Coresh, Josef and Shlipak, Michael G and Fox, Caroline S} } @article {1141, title = {Multiple loci influence erythrocyte phenotypes in the CHARGE Consortium.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {41}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Nov}, pages = {1191-8}, abstract = {

Measurements of erythrocytes within the blood are important clinical traits and can indicate various hematological disorders. We report here genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for six erythrocyte traits, including hemoglobin concentration (Hb), hematocrit (Hct), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and red blood cell count (RBC). We performed an initial GWAS in cohorts of the CHARGE Consortium totaling 24,167 individuals of European ancestry and replication in additional independent cohorts of the HaemGen Consortium totaling 9,456 individuals. We identified 23 loci significantly associated with these traits in a meta-analysis of the discovery and replication cohorts (combined P values ranging from 5 x 10(-8) to 7 x 10(-86)). Our findings include loci previously associated with these traits (HBS1L-MYB, HFE, TMPRSS6, TFR2, SPTA1) as well as new associations (EPO, TFRC, SH2B3 and 15 other loci). This study has identified new determinants of erythrocyte traits, offering insight into common variants underlying variation in erythrocyte measures.

}, keywords = {Blood Pressure, Cell Line, Cohort Studies, Endothelial Cells, Erythrocytes, Gene Expression, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Quantitative Trait Loci}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.466}, author = {Ganesh, Santhi K and Zakai, Neil A and van Rooij, Frank J A and Soranzo, Nicole and Smith, Albert V and Nalls, Michael A and Chen, Ming-Huei and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Glazer, Nicole L and Dehghan, Abbas and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Aspelund, Thor and Yang, Qiong and Tanaka, Toshiko and Jaffe, Andrew and Bis, Joshua C M and Verwoert, Germaine C and Teumer, Alexander and Fox, Caroline S and Guralnik, Jack M and Ehret, Georg B and Rice, Kenneth and Felix, Janine F and Rendon, Augusto and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Levy, Daniel and Patel, Kushang V and Boerwinkle, Eric and Rotter, Jerome I and Hofman, Albert and Sambrook, Jennifer G and Hernandez, Dena G and Zheng, Gang and Bandinelli, Stefania and Singleton, Andrew B and Coresh, Josef and Lumley, Thomas and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vangils, Janine M and Launer, Lenore J and Cupples, L Adrienne and Oostra, Ben A and Zwaginga, Jaap-Jan and Ouwehand, Willem H and Thein, Swee-Lay and Meisinger, Christa and Deloukas, Panos and Nauck, Matthias and Spector, Tim D and Gieger, Christian and Gudnason, Vilmundur and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Psaty, Bruce M and Ferrucci, Luigi and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Greinacher, Andreas and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Furth, Susan and Cushman, Mary and Harris, Tamara B and Lin, Jing-Ping} } @article {1150, title = {Meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies identify multiple loci associated with pulmonary function.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {42}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Jan}, pages = {45-52}, abstract = {

Spirometric measures of lung function are heritable traits that reflect respiratory health and predict morbidity and mortality. We meta-analyzed genome-wide association studies for two clinically important lung-function measures: forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV(1)) and its ratio to forced vital capacity (FEV(1)/FVC), an indicator of airflow obstruction. This meta-analysis included 20,890 participants of European ancestry from four CHARGE Consortium studies: Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities, Cardiovascular Health Study, Framingham Heart Study and Rotterdam Study. We identified eight loci associated with FEV(1)/FVC (HHIP, GPR126, ADAM19, AGER-PPT2, FAM13A, PTCH1, PID1 and HTR4) and one locus associated with FEV(1) (INTS12-GSTCD-NPNT) at or near genome-wide significance (P < 5 x 10(-8)) in the CHARGE Consortium dataset. Our findings may offer insights into pulmonary function and pathogenesis of chronic lung disease.

}, keywords = {Databases, Genetic, Female, Forced Expiratory Volume, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Lung, Lung Diseases, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Spirometry, Vital Capacity}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.500}, author = {Hancock, Dana B and Eijgelsheim, Mark and Wilk, Jemma B and Gharib, Sina A and Loehr, Laura R and Marciante, Kristin D and Franceschini, Nora and van Durme, Yannick M T A and Chen, Ting-Hsu and Barr, R Graham and Schabath, Matthew B and Couper, David J and Brusselle, Guy G and Psaty, Bruce M and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Rotter, Jerome I and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Hofman, Albert and Punjabi, Naresh M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Morrison, Alanna C and Enright, Paul L and North, Kari E and Heckbert, Susan R and Lumley, Thomas and Stricker, Bruno H C and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and London, Stephanie J} } @article {1236, title = {Meta-analysis identifies 13 new loci associated with waist-hip ratio and reveals sexual dimorphism in the genetic basis of fat distribution.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {42}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Nov}, pages = {949-60}, abstract = {

Waist-hip ratio (WHR) is a measure of body fat distribution and a predictor of metabolic consequences independent of overall adiposity. WHR is heritable, but few genetic variants influencing this trait have been identified. We conducted a meta-analysis of 32 genome-wide association studies for WHR adjusted for body mass index (comprising up to 77,167 participants), following up 16 loci in an additional 29 studies (comprising up to 113,636 subjects). We identified 13 new loci in or near RSPO3, VEGFA, TBX15-WARS2, NFE2L3, GRB14, DNM3-PIGC, ITPR2-SSPN, LY86, HOXC13, ADAMTS9, ZNRF3-KREMEN1, NISCH-STAB1 and CPEB4 (P = 1.9 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}$$^{9}$ to P = 1.8 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}$$^{4}$$^{0}$) and the known signal at LYPLAL1. Seven of these loci exhibited marked sexual dimorphism, all with a stronger effect on WHR in women than men (P for sex difference = 1.9 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}${\textthreesuperior} to P = 1.2 {\texttimes} 10$^{-}${\textonesuperior}{\textthreesuperior}). These findings provide evidence for multiple loci that modulate body fat distribution independent of overall adiposity and reveal strong gene-by-sex interactions.

}, keywords = {Adipose Tissue, Age Factors, Chromosome Mapping, Female, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sex Characteristics, Waist-Hip Ratio}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.685}, author = {Heid, Iris M and Jackson, Anne U and Randall, Joshua C and Winkler, Thomas W and Qi, Lu and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Zillikens, M Carola and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Workalemahu, Tsegaselassie and White, Charles C and Bouatia-Naji, Nabila and Harris, Tamara B and Berndt, Sonja I and Ingelsson, Erik and Willer, Cristen J and Weedon, Michael N and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Vedantam, Sailaja and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Li, Shengxu and Monda, Keri L and Dixon, Anna L and Holmes, Christopher C and Kaplan, Lee M and Liang, Liming and Min, Josine L and Moffatt, Miriam F and Molony, Cliona and Nicholson, George and Schadt, Eric E and Zondervan, Krina T and Feitosa, Mary F and Ferreira, Teresa and Lango Allen, Hana and Weyant, Robert J and Wheeler, Eleanor and Wood, Andrew R and Estrada, Karol and Goddard, Michael E and Lettre, Guillaume and Mangino, Massimo and Nyholt, Dale R and Purcell, Shaun and Smith, Albert Vernon and Visscher, Peter M and Yang, Jian and McCarroll, Steven A and Nemesh, James and Voight, Benjamin F and Absher, Devin and Amin, Najaf and Aspelund, Thor and Coin, Lachlan and Glazer, Nicole L and Hayward, Caroline and Heard-Costa, Nancy L and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Johansson, Asa and Johnson, Toby and Kaakinen, Marika and Kapur, Karen and Ketkar, Shamika and Knowles, Joshua W and Kraft, Peter and Kraja, Aldi T and Lamina, Claudia and Leitzmann, Michael F and McKnight, Barbara and Morris, Andrew P and Ong, Ken K and Perry, John R B and Peters, Marjolein J and Polasek, Ozren and Prokopenko, Inga and Rayner, Nigel W and Ripatti, Samuli and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Robertson, Neil R and Sanna, Serena and Sovio, Ulla and Surakka, Ida and Teumer, Alexander and van Wingerden, Sophie and Vitart, Veronique and Zhao, Jing Hua and Cavalcanti-Proen{\c c}a, Christine and Chines, Peter S and Fisher, Eva and Kulzer, Jennifer R and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Narisu, Narisu and Sandholt, Camilla and Scott, Laura J and Silander, Kaisa and Stark, Klaus and Tammesoo, Mari-Liis and Teslovich, Tanya M and Timpson, Nicholas John and Watanabe, Richard M and Welch, Ryan and Chasman, Daniel I and Cooper, Matthew N and Jansson, John-Olov and Kettunen, Johannes and Lawrence, Robert W and Pellikka, Niina and Perola, Markus and Vandenput, Liesbeth and Alavere, Helene and Almgren, Peter and Atwood, Larry D and Bennett, Amanda J and Biffar, Reiner and Bonnycastle, Lori L and Bornstein, Stefan R and Buchanan, Thomas A and Campbell, Harry and Day, Ian N M and Dei, Mariano and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Elliott, Paul and Erdos, Michael R and Eriksson, Johan G and Freimer, Nelson B and Fu, Mao and Gaget, Stefan and Geus, Eco J C and Gjesing, Anette P and Grallert, Harald and Gr{\"a}ssler, J{\"u}rgen and Groves, Christopher J and Guiducci, Candace and Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa and Hassanali, Neelam and Havulinna, Aki S and Herzig, Karl-Heinz and Hicks, Andrew A and Hui, Jennie and Igl, Wilmar and Jousilahti, Pekka and Jula, Antti and Kajantie, Eero and Kinnunen, Leena and Kolcic, Ivana and Koskinen, Seppo and Kovacs, Peter and Kroemer, Heyo K and Krzelj, Vjekoslav and Kuusisto, Johanna and Kvaloy, Kirsti and Laitinen, Jaana and Lantieri, Olivier and Lathrop, G Mark and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and Luben, Robert N and Ludwig, Barbara and McArdle, Wendy L and McCarthy, Anne and Morken, Mario A and Nelis, Mari and Neville, Matt J and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Parker, Alex N and Peden, John F and Pichler, Irene and Pietil{\"a}inen, Kirsi H and Platou, Carl G P and Pouta, Anneli and Ridderstr{\r a}le, Martin and Samani, Nilesh J and Saramies, Jouko and Sinisalo, Juha and Smit, Jan H and Strawbridge, Rona J and Stringham, Heather M and Swift, Amy J and Teder-Laving, Maris and Thomson, Brian and Usala, Gianluca and van Meurs, Joyce B J and van Ommen, Gert-Jan and Vatin, Vincent and Volpato, Claudia B and Wallaschofski, Henri and Walters, G Bragi and Widen, Elisabeth and Wild, Sarah H and Willemsen, Gonneke and Witte, Daniel R and Zgaga, Lina and Zitting, Paavo and Beilby, John P and James, Alan L and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Nieminen, Markku S and Ohlsson, Claes and Palmer, Lyle J and Raitakari, Olli and Ridker, Paul M and Stumvoll, Michael and T{\"o}njes, Anke and Viikari, Jorma and Balkau, Beverley and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Bergman, Richard N and Boeing, Heiner and Smith, George Davey and Ebrahim, Shah and Froguel, Philippe and Hansen, Torben and Hengstenberg, Christian and Hveem, Kristian and Isomaa, Bo and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Karpe, Fredrik and Khaw, Kay-Tee and Laakso, Markku and Lawlor, Debbie A and Marre, Michel and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Midthjell, Kristian and Pedersen, Oluf and Salomaa, Veikko and Schwarz, Peter E H and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Valle, Timo T and Wareham, Nicholas J and Arnold, Alice M and Beckmann, Jacques S and Bergmann, Sven and Boerwinkle, Eric and Boomsma, Dorret I and Caulfield, Mark J and Collins, Francis S and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gyllensten, Ulf and Hamsten, Anders and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hofman, Albert and Hu, Frank B and Illig, Thomas and Iribarren, Carlos and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Kao, W H Linda and Kaprio, Jaakko and Launer, Lenore J and Munroe, Patricia B and Oostra, Ben and Penninx, Brenda W and Pramstaller, Peter P and Psaty, Bruce M and Quertermous, Thomas and Rissanen, Aila and Rudan, Igor and Shuldiner, Alan R and Soranzo, Nicole and Spector, Timothy D and Syv{\"a}nen, Ann-Christine and Uda, Manuela and Uitterlinden, Andre and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Vollenweider, Peter and Wilson, James F and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Wright, Alan F and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Boehnke, Michael and Borecki, Ingrid B and Deloukas, Panos and Frayling, Timothy M and Groop, Leif C and Haritunians, Talin and Hunter, David J and Kaplan, Robert C and North, Kari E and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Peltonen, Leena and Schlessinger, David and Strachan, David P and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Assimes, Themistocles L and Wichmann, H-Erich and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Stefansson, Kari and Cupples, L Adrienne and Loos, Ruth J F and Barroso, In{\^e}s and McCarthy, Mark I and Fox, Caroline S and Mohlke, Karen L and Lindgren, Cecilia M} } @article {1179, title = {A meta-analysis of four genome-wide association studies of survival to age 90 years or older: the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Consortium.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {65}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 May}, pages = {478-87}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) may yield insights into longevity.

METHODS: We performed a meta-analysis of GWAS in Caucasians from four prospective cohort studies: the Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility-Reykjavik Study, the Cardiovascular Health Study, the Framingham Heart Study, and the Rotterdam Study participating in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium. Longevity was defined as survival to age 90 years or older (n = 1,836); the comparison group comprised cohort members who died between the ages of 55 and 80 years (n = 1,955). In a second discovery stage, additional genotyping was conducted in the Leiden Longevity Study cohort and the Danish 1905 cohort.

RESULTS: There were 273 single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associations with p < .0001, but none reached the prespecified significance level of 5 x 10(-8). Of the most significant SNPs, 24 were independent signals, and 16 of these SNPs were successfully genotyped in the second discovery stage, with one association for rs9664222, reaching 6.77 x 10(-7) for the combined meta-analysis of CHARGE and the stage 2 cohorts. The SNP lies in a region near MINPP1 (chromosome 10), a well-conserved gene involved in regulation of cellular proliferation. The minor allele was associated with lower odds of survival past age 90 (odds ratio = 0.82). Associations of interest in a homologue of the longevity assurance gene (LASS3) and PAPPA2 were not strengthened in the second stage.

CONCLUSION: Survival studies of larger size or more extreme or specific phenotypes may support or refine these initial findings.

}, keywords = {Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alleles, Cohort Studies, Confidence Intervals, Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Longevity, Male, Middle Aged, Odds Ratio, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glq028}, author = {Newman, Anne B and Walter, Stefan and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Garcia, Melissa E and Slagboom, P Eline and Christensen, Kaare and Arnold, Alice M and Aspelund, Thor and Aulchenko, Yurii S and Benjamin, Emelia J and Christiansen, Lene and D{\textquoteright}Agostino, Ralph B and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Franceschini, Nora and Glazer, Nicole L and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hofman, Albert and Kaplan, Robert and Karasik, David and Kelly-Hayes, Margaret and Kiel, Douglas P and Launer, Lenore J and Marciante, Kristin D and Massaro, Joseph M and Miljkovic, Iva and Nalls, Michael A and Hernandez, Dena and Psaty, Bruce M and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rotter, Jerome and Seshadri, Sudha and Smith, Albert V and Taylor, Kent D and Tiemeier, Henning and Uh, Hae-Won and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vaupel, James W and Walston, Jeremy and Westendorp, Rudi G J and Harris, Tamara B and Lumley, Thomas and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Murabito, Joanne M} } @article {1235, title = {Multiple genetic loci influence serum urate levels and their relationship with gout and cardiovascular disease risk factors.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {3}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Dec}, pages = {523-30}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Elevated serum urate levels can lead to gout and are associated with cardiovascular risk factors. We performed a genome-wide association study to search for genetic susceptibility loci for serum urate and gout and investigated the causal nature of the associations of serum urate with gout and selected cardiovascular risk factors and coronary heart disease (CHD).

METHODS AND RESULTS: Meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were performed in 5 population-based cohorts of the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genome Epidemiology consortium for serum urate and gout in 28 283 white participants. The effect of the most significant single-nucleotide polymorphism at all genome-wide significant loci on serum urate was added to create a genetic urate score. Findings were replicated in the Women{\textquoteright}s Genome Health Study (n=22 054). Single-nucleotide polymorphisms at 8 genetic loci achieved genome-wide significance with serum urate levels (P=4{\texttimes}10(-8) to 2{\texttimes}10(-242) in SLC22A11, GCKR, R3HDM2-INHBC region, RREB1, PDZK1, SLC2A9, ABCG2, and SLC17A1). Only 2 loci (SLC2A9, ABCG2) showed genome-wide significant association with gout. The genetic urate score was strongly associated with serum urate and gout (odds ratio, 12.4 per 100 μmol/L; P=3{\texttimes}10(-39)) but not with blood pressure, glucose, estimated glomerular filtration rate, chronic kidney disease, or CHD. The lack of association between the genetic score and the latter phenotypes also was observed in the Women{\textquoteright}s Genome Health Study.

CONCLUSIONS: The genetic urate score analysis suggested a causal relationship between serum urate and gout but did not provide evidence for one between serum urate and cardiovascular risk factors and CHD.

}, keywords = {Cardiovascular Diseases, Coronary Disease, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Gout, Humans, Male, Risk Factors, Uric Acid}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.109.934455}, author = {Yang, Qiong and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Dehghan, Abbas and Smith, Albert V and Glazer, Nicole L and Chen, Ming-Huei and Chasman, Daniel I and Aspelund, Thor and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore and Nalls, Michael and Hernandez, Dena and Arking, Dan E and Boerwinkle, Eric and Grove, Megan L and Li, Man and Linda Kao, W H and Chonchol, Michel and Haritunians, Talin and Li, Guo and Lumley, Thomas and Psaty, Bruce M and Shlipak, Michael and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Larson, Martin G and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Upadhyay, Ashish and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Hofman, Albert and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Stricker, Bruno and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Parker, Alex N and Ridker, Paul M and Siscovick, David S and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Witteman, Jacqueline C and Fox, Caroline S and Coresh, Josef} } @article {1318, title = {Measurement of organ structure and function enhances understanding of the physiological basis of frailty: the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {59}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep}, pages = {1581-8}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether disease burden is associated with frailty independent of diagnosed chronic disease and whether physiological measurements provide greater understanding of the etiology of frailty.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional.

SETTING: Community.

PARTICIPANTS: Two thousand four hundred thirty-seven participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study, 1992/93 examination (mean age 74.8 {\textpm} 4.8, 43.4\% male, 95.8\% white).

MEASUREMENTS: Disease burden and frailty were tabulated using 10-point scales (0 = healthy, 10 = unhealthy). Disease burden was the sum of measurements characterizing the vasculature, brain, kidneys, lungs, and glucose metabolism. Frailty was assessed using the frailty index reported by Fried. Multivariate linear models were used to determine the association between disease burden (predictor) and frailty (outcome).

RESULTS: Unadjusted, 1-point-higher disease burden was associated with a 0.28-point-higher frailty score (P < .001). White matter grade, forced vital capacity, and cystatin-C were particularly strongly and significantly associated with frailty. Disease burden attenuated the association between frailty and age by 29\%, and disease burden and age had similar associations with frailty. Disease burden attenuated the association between frailty and fibrinogen, Factor VIII, and C-reactive protein by 32\%, 56\%, and 83\%, respectively. Frailty was associated with diagnosed depression, stroke, cognitive impairment, arthritis, and pulmonary disease but not coronary heart disease, diabetes mellitus, or kidney disease in the presence of a summary of disease burden. In the adjusted model, disease burden remained significantly associated with frailty (β = 0.11, P < .001).

CONCLUSION: Disease burden was independently and significantly associated with frailty. These results emphasize that typically unrecognized physiological changes may contribute significantly to frailty.

}, keywords = {Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Chronic Disease, Cost of Illness, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Frail Elderly, Humans, Male}, issn = {1532-5415}, doi = {10.1111/j.1532-5415.2011.03557.x}, author = {Sanders, Jason L and Boudreau, Robert M and Fried, Linda P and Walston, Jeremy D and Harris, Tamara B and Newman, Anne B} } @article {1254, title = {Measures of adiposity and future risk of ischemic stroke and coronary heart disease in older men and women.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, volume = {173}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Jan 01}, pages = {10-25}, abstract = {

The relation between measures of general and central adiposity and individual cardiovascular endpoints remains understudied in older adults. This study investigated the association of measures of body size and composition with incident ischemic stroke or coronary heart disease (1989-2007) in 3,754 community-dwelling US adults aged 65-100 years. Standardized anthropometry and bioelectric impedance measurements were obtained at baseline. Body mass index at age 50 years (BMI50) was calculated on the basis of recalled weight. Although only waist/hip ratio was significantly associated with ischemic stroke in quintile analysis in women, dichotomized body mass index (BMI) (>= 30 kg/m{\texttwosuperior}) was the only significant predictor in men. For coronary heart disease, there were significant positive adjusted associations for all adiposity measures, without interaction by sex. This was true for both quintiles and conventional cutpoints for obesity, although BMI-defined overweight (25-29.9 kg/m{\texttwosuperior} was significant at midlife but not at baseline. Strengths of association for extreme quintiles (quintile 5 vs. quintile 1) were broadly comparable, but the highest effect estimates were for waist/hip ratio (hazard ratio = 1.56, 95\% confidence interval: 1.25, 1.94) and BMI50 (hazard ratio = 1.71, 95\% confidence interval: 1.37, 2.14), both of which remained significant after adjustment for mediators, BMI, or each other. Whether these differences translate to better risk prediction will require meta-analytical approaches, as will determination of prognostic cutpoints.

}, keywords = {Adiposity, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Brain Ischemia, Coronary Disease, Female, Humans, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Prevalence, Retrospective Studies, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, United States}, issn = {1476-6256}, doi = {10.1093/aje/kwq311}, author = {Kizer, Jorge R and Biggs, Mary L and Ix, Joachim H and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Zieman, Susan J and de Boer, Ian H and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Barzilay, Joshua I and Strotmeyer, Elsa S and Luchsinger, Jos{\'e} A and Elkind, Mitchell S V and Longstreth, W T and Kuller, Lewis H and Siscovick, David S} } @article {1258, title = {Meta-analysis of gene-environment interaction: joint estimation of SNP and SNP {\texttimes} environment regression coefficients.}, journal = {Genet Epidemiol}, volume = {35}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Jan}, pages = {11-8}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: Genetic discoveries are validated through the meta-analysis of genome-wide association scans in large international consortia. Because environmental variables may interact with genetic factors, investigation of differing genetic effects for distinct levels of an environmental exposure in these large consortia may yield additional susceptibility loci undetected by main effects analysis. We describe a method of joint meta-analysis (JMA) of SNP and SNP by Environment (SNP {\texttimes} E) regression coefficients for use in gene-environment interaction studies.

METHODS: In testing SNP {\texttimes} E interactions, one approach uses a two degree of freedom test to identify genetic variants that influence the trait of interest. This approach detects both main and interaction effects between the trait and the SNP. We propose a method to jointly meta-analyze the SNP and SNP {\texttimes} E coefficients using multivariate generalized least squares. This approach provides confidence intervals of the two estimates, a joint significance test for SNP and SNP {\texttimes} E terms, and a test of homogeneity across samples.

RESULTS: We present a simulation study comparing this method to four other methods of meta-analysis and demonstrate that the JMA performs better than the others when both main and interaction effects are present. Additionally, we implemented our methods in a meta-analysis of the association between SNPs from the type 2 diabetes-associated gene PPARG and log-transformed fasting insulin levels and interaction by body mass index in a combined sample of 19,466 individuals from five cohorts.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Body Mass Index, Confidence Intervals, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Environment, Fasting, Female, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Insulin, Least-Squares Analysis, Male, Mathematical Computing, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, PPAR gamma}, issn = {1098-2272}, doi = {10.1002/gepi.20546}, author = {Manning, Alisa K and LaValley, Michael and Liu, Ching-Ti and Rice, Kenneth and An, Ping and Liu, Yongmei and Miljkovic, Iva and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura and Harris, Tamara B and Province, Michael A and Borecki, Ingrid B and Florez, Jose C and Meigs, James B and Cupples, L Adrienne and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e} } @article {1323, title = {Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies from the CHARGE consortium identifies common variants associated with carotid intima media thickness and plaque.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {43}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Sep 11}, pages = {940-7}, abstract = {

Carotid intima media thickness (cIMT) and plaque determined by ultrasonography are established measures of subclinical atherosclerosis that each predicts future cardiovascular disease events. We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association data in 31,211 participants of European ancestry from nine large studies in the setting of the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium. We then sought additional evidence to support our findings among 11,273 individuals using data from seven additional studies. In the combined meta-analysis, we identified three genomic regions associated with common carotid intima media thickness and two different regions associated with the presence of carotid plaque (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). The associated SNPs mapped in or near genes related to cellular signaling, lipid metabolism and blood pressure homeostasis, and two of the regions were associated with coronary artery disease (P < 0.006) in the Coronary Artery Disease Genome-Wide Replication and Meta-Analysis (CARDIoGRAM) consortium. Our findings may provide new insight into pathways leading to subclinical atherosclerosis and subsequent cardiovascular events.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aging, Atherosclerosis, Carotid Intima-Media Thickness, Cohort Studies, Coronary Artery Disease, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Heart, Humans, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Plaque, Atherosclerotic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.920}, author = {Bis, Joshua C and Kavousi, Maryam and Franceschini, Nora and Isaacs, Aaron and Abecasis, Goncalo R and Schminke, Ulf and Post, Wendy S and Smith, Albert V and Cupples, L Adrienne and Markus, Hugh S and Schmidt, Reinhold and Huffman, Jennifer E and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Baumert, Jens and M{\"u}nzel, Thomas and Heckbert, Susan R and Dehghan, Abbas and North, Kari and Oostra, Ben and Bevan, Steve and Stoegerer, Eva-Maria and Hayward, Caroline and Raitakari, Olli and Meisinger, Christa and Schillert, Arne and Sanna, Serena and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Cheng, Yu-Ching and Thorsson, Bolli and Fox, Caroline S and Rice, Kenneth and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Nambi, Vijay and Halperin, Eran and Petrovic, Katja E and Peltonen, Leena and Wichmann, H Erich and Schnabel, Renate B and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Parsa, Afshin and Aspelund, Thor and Demissie, Serkalem and Kathiresan, Sekar and Reilly, Muredach P and Taylor, Kent and Uitterlinden, Andre and Couper, David J and Sitzer, Matthias and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Illig, Thomas and Wild, Philipp S and Orr{\`u}, Marco and L{\"u}demann, Jan and Shuldiner, Alan R and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and White, Charles C and Rotter, Jerome I and Hofman, Albert and Seissler, Jochen and Zeller, Tanja and Usala, Gianluca and Ernst, Florian and Launer, Lenore J and D{\textquoteright}Agostino, Ralph B and O{\textquoteright}Leary, Daniel H and Ballantyne, Christie and Thiery, Joachim and Ziegler, Andreas and Lakatta, Edward G and Chilukoti, Ravi Kumar and Harris, Tamara B and Wolf, Philip A and Psaty, Bruce M and Polak, Joseph F and Li, Xia and Rathmann, Wolfgang and Uda, Manuela and Boerwinkle, Eric and Klopp, Norman and Schmidt, Helena and Wilson, James F and Viikari, Jorma and Koenig, Wolfgang and Blankenberg, Stefan and Newman, Anne B and Witteman, Jacqueline and Heiss, Gerardo and Duijn, Cornelia van and Scuteri, Angelo and Homuth, Georg and Mitchell, Braxton D and Gudnason, Vilmundur and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J} } @article {1267, title = {Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in >80 000 subjects identifies multiple loci for C-reactive protein levels.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {123}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Feb 22}, pages = {731-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: C-reactive protein (CRP) is a heritable marker of chronic inflammation that is strongly associated with cardiovascular disease. We sought to identify genetic variants that are associated with CRP levels.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We performed a genome-wide association analysis of CRP in 66 185 participants from 15 population-based studies. We sought replication for the genome-wide significant and suggestive loci in a replication panel comprising 16 540 individuals from 10 independent studies. We found 18 genome-wide significant loci, and we provided evidence of replication for 8 of them. Our results confirm 7 previously known loci and introduce 11 novel loci that are implicated in pathways related to the metabolic syndrome (APOC1, HNF1A, LEPR, GCKR, HNF4A, and PTPN2) or the immune system (CRP, IL6R, NLRP3, IL1F10, and IRF1) or that reside in regions previously not known to play a role in chronic inflammation (PPP1R3B, SALL1, PABPC4, ASCL1, RORA, and BCL7B). We found a significant interaction of body mass index with LEPR (P<2.9{\texttimes}10(-6)). A weighted genetic risk score that was developed to summarize the effect of risk alleles was strongly associated with CRP levels and explained ≈5\% of the trait variance; however, there was no evidence for these genetic variants explaining the association of CRP with coronary heart disease.

CONCLUSIONS: We identified 18 loci that were associated with CRP levels. Our study highlights immune response and metabolic regulatory pathways involved in the regulation of chronic inflammation.

}, keywords = {Biomarkers, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Risk Factors, Vasculitis}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.110.948570}, author = {Dehghan, Abbas and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Barbalic, Maja and Bis, Joshua C and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Lu, Chen and Pellikka, Niina and Wallaschofski, Henri and Kettunen, Johannes and Henneman, Peter and Baumert, Jens and Strachan, David P and Fuchsberger, Christian and Vitart, Veronique and Wilson, James F and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Naitza, Silvia and Rudock, Megan E and Surakka, Ida and de Geus, Eco J C and Alizadeh, Behrooz Z and Guralnik, Jack and Shuldiner, Alan and Tanaka, Toshiko and Zee, Robert Y L and Schnabel, Renate B and Nambi, Vijay and Kavousi, Maryam and Ripatti, Samuli and Nauck, Matthias and Smith, Nicholas L and Smith, Albert V and Sundvall, Jouko and Scheet, Paul and Liu, Yongmei and Ruokonen, Aimo and Rose, Lynda M and Larson, Martin G and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Freimer, Nelson B and Teumer, Alexander and Tracy, Russell P and Launer, Lenore J and Buring, Julie E and Yamamoto, Jennifer F and Folsom, Aaron R and Sijbrands, Eric J G and Pankow, James and Elliott, Paul and Keaney, John F and Sun, Wei and Sarin, Antti-Pekka and Fontes, Jo{\~a}o D and Badola, Sunita and Astor, Brad C and Hofman, Albert and Pouta, Anneli and Werdan, Karl and Greiser, Karin H and Kuss, Oliver and Meyer zu Schwabedissen, Henriette E and Thiery, Joachim and Jamshidi, Yalda and Nolte, Ilja M and Soranzo, Nicole and Spector, Timothy D and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Parker, Alexander N and Aspelund, Thor and Bates, David and Young, Lauren and Tsui, Kim and Siscovick, David S and Guo, Xiuqing and Rotter, Jerome I and Uda, Manuela and Schlessinger, David and Rudan, Igor and Hicks, Andrew A and Penninx, Brenda W and Thorand, Barbara and Gieger, Christian and Coresh, Joe and Willemsen, Gonneke and Harris, Tamara B and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Rice, Kenneth and Radke, D{\"o}rte and Salomaa, Veikko and Willems van Dijk, Ko and Boerwinkle, Eric and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Ferrucci, Luigi and Gibson, Quince D and Bandinelli, Stefania and Snieder, Harold and Boomsma, Dorret I and Xiao, Xiangjun and Campbell, Harry and Hayward, Caroline and Pramstaller, Peter P and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Peltonen, Leena and Psaty, Bruce M and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Ridker, Paul M and Homuth, Georg and Koenig, Wolfgang and Ballantyne, Christie M and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Benjamin, Emelia J and Perola, Markus and Chasman, Daniel I} } @article {1285, title = {Mineral metabolism markers and the long-term risk of hip fracture: the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {J Clin Endocrinol Metab}, volume = {96}, year = {2011}, month = {2011 Jul}, pages = {2186-93}, abstract = {

CONTEXT: Disturbances in mineral metabolism are associated with lower bone mineral density and fracture; however, previous human studies have assessed individual mineral metabolism markers in isolation.

OBJECTIVE: We assessed serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD), PTH, and bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BAP) concentrations individually, and in combination, in association with the long-term risk of hip fracture among a general population of older adults.

DESIGN AND SETTING: We studied 2294 participants from the Cardiovascular Health Study (mean age 74 yr) who were ambulatory and free of hip fracture and known cardiovascular disease at baseline. We used proportional hazards models to evaluate associations of baseline serum 25-OHD, PTH, and BAP concentrations with the time to first hospitalized hip fracture.

RESULTS: During a median of 13 yr of follow-up, 242 participants (10.6\%) developed an incident hip fracture. Serum 25-OHD concentrations less than 15 ng/ml were associated with a 61\% greater adjusted risk of fracture (95\% confidence interval 12-132\% greater). In contrast, neither serum PTH nor BAP concentrations were significantly associated with fracture risk. The association of 25-OHD deficiency with hip fracture was not significantly altered by either PTH or BAP concentrations.

CONCLUSIONS: Serum concentrations of 25-OHD, but not PTH or BAP, are associated with long-term hip fracture risk among ambulatory older adults. These data suggest that 25-OHD is the most relevant mineral metabolism marker of fracture risk among older people.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alkaline Phosphatase, Biomarkers, Bone Density, Female, Hip Fractures, Humans, Male, Parathyroid Hormone, Risk, Vitamin D}, issn = {1945-7197}, doi = {10.1210/jc.2010-2878}, author = {Robinson-Cohen, Cassianne and Katz, Ronit and Hoofnagle, Andrew N and Cauley, Jane A and Furberg, Curt D and Robbins, John A and Chen, Zhao and Siscovick, David S and de Boer, Ian H and Kestenbaum, Bryan} } @article {1367, title = {Markers of cholesterol metabolism in the brain show stronger associations with cerebrovascular disease than Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease.}, journal = {J Alzheimers Dis}, volume = {30}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {53-61}, abstract = {

Cholesterol metabolism is believed to play a role in the development of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (AD). Oxysterol metabolites of cholesterol, 24S-hydroxycholesterol (24-OHC, a brain-derived oxysterol) and 27-hydroxycholesterol (27-OHC, a peripherally derived oxysterol) cross the blood brain barrier and have been associated with AD. We investigated whether oxysterols were associated with markers of cerebrovascular disease prior to the onset of cognitive impairment. Oxysterols were quantified in 105 participants (average age: 80 {\textpm} 4 years) from the Pittsburgh Cardiovascular Health Study Cognition Study who remained cognitively normal at blood draw in 2002, had MRI in 1992 and 1998, and annual cognitive assessment for incident AD and mild cognitive impairment made by consensus conference between 1998 and 2010. Higher plasma levels of 24-OHC were associated with age, gender, the presence of high grade white matter hyperintensities, and brain infarcts on prior MRI. Participants with higher plasma 24-OHC and a greater ratio of 24-OHC/27-OHC were also more likely to develop incident cognitive impairment over 8 years of follow-up. Higher levels of 24-OHC suggest increased cholesterol metabolism occurring in the brains of participants with cerebrovascular disease prior to the onset of cognitive impairment. Measurement of oxysterols may provide information about cholesterol metabolism and brain disease over the cognitive impairment process.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alzheimer Disease, Apolipoprotein E4, Brain, Cerebrovascular Disorders, Cognition Disorders, Cohort Studies, Female, Humans, Hydroxycholesterols, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Retrospective Studies}, issn = {1875-8908}, doi = {10.3233/JAD-2012-111460}, author = {Hughes, Timothy M and Kuller, Lewis H and Lopez, Oscar L and Becker, James T and Evans, Rhobert W and Sutton-Tyrrell, Kim and Rosano, Caterina} } @article {1354, title = {Markers of inflammation in prevalent and incident Parkinson{\textquoteright}s disease in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Parkinsonism Relat Disord}, volume = {18}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Mar}, pages = {274-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Studies demonstrate existence of inflammation in prevalent Parkinson{\textquoteright}s disease (PD). We assessed associations of baseline levels of inflammatory markers with prevalent PD at baseline (1989) and incident PD identified over 13 years of follow-up of the Cardiovascular Health Study.

METHODS: Blood samples at baseline were measured for fibrinogen, interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α, C-reactive protein, albumin, and white blood cells. The analysis included 60 prevalent and 154 incident PD cases.

RESULTS: Risk of prevalent PD was significantly higher per doubling of IL-6 among women (odds ratio [OR]=1.5, 95\% confidence interval [CI]: 1.0, 2.4) and WBC among men (OR: 2.4, 95\% CI: 1.2, 4.9) in multivariate models. Risk of incident PD was not associated with higher levels of any biomarker after adjusting for age, smoking, African American race, and history of diabetes. Inverse associations with incident PD were observed per doubling of C-reactive protein (OR=0.9; 95\% CI: 0.8, 1.0) and of fibrinogen among women (OR=0.4; 95\% CI: 0.2, 0.8).

CONCLUSIONS: Although inflammation exists in PD, it may not represent an etiologic factor. Our findings suggest the need for larger studies that measure inflammatory markers before PD onset.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Albumins, Biomarkers, C-Reactive Protein, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Female, Fibrinogen, Humans, Incidence, Inflammation, Interleukin-6, Leukocyte Count, Male, Parkinson Disease, Prevalence, Risk Factors, Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha}, issn = {1873-5126}, doi = {10.1016/j.parkreldis.2011.11.003}, author = {Ton, Thanh G N and Jain, Samay and Biggs, Mary L and Thacker, Evan L and Strotmeyer, Elsa S and Boudreau, Robert and Newman, Anne B and Longstreth, W T and Checkoway, Harvey} } @article {1360, title = {Meta-analyses identify 13 loci associated with age at menopause and highlight DNA repair and immune pathways.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {44}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Jan 22}, pages = {260-8}, abstract = {

To newly identify loci for age at natural menopause, we carried out a meta-analysis of 22 genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in 38,968 women of European descent, with replication in up to 14,435 women. In addition to four known loci, we identified 13 loci newly associated with age at natural menopause (at P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Candidate genes located at these newly associated loci include genes implicated in DNA repair (EXO1, HELQ, UIMC1, FAM175A, FANCI, TLK1, POLG and PRIM1) and immune function (IL11, NLRP11 and PRRC2A (also known as BAT2)). Gene-set enrichment pathway analyses using the full GWAS data set identified exoDNase, NF-κB signaling and mitochondrial dysfunction as biological processes related to timing of menopause.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, DNA Helicases, DNA Polymerase gamma, DNA Primase, DNA Repair, DNA Repair Enzymes, DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase, European Continental Ancestry Group, Exodeoxyribonucleases, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Immunity, Menopause, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Proteins}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.1051}, author = {Stolk, Lisette and Perry, John R B and Chasman, Daniel I and He, Chunyan and Mangino, Massimo and Sulem, Patrick and Barbalic, Maja and Broer, Linda and Byrne, Enda M and Ernst, Florian and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Franceschini, Nora and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Hottenga, Jouke-Jan and Kraft, Peter and McArdle, Patrick F and Porcu, Eleonora and Shin, So-Youn and Smith, Albert V and van Wingerden, Sophie and Zhai, Guangju and Zhuang, Wei V and Albrecht, Eva and Alizadeh, Behrooz Z and Aspelund, Thor and Bandinelli, Stefania and Lauc, Lovorka Barac and Beckmann, Jacques S and Boban, Mladen and Boerwinkle, Eric and Broekmans, Frank J and Burri, Andrea and Campbell, Harry and Chanock, Stephen J and Chen, Constance and Cornelis, Marilyn C and Corre, Tanguy and Coviello, Andrea D and D{\textquoteright}Adamo, Pio and Davies, Gail and de Faire, Ulf and de Geus, Eco J C and Deary, Ian J and Dedoussis, George V Z and Deloukas, Panagiotis and Ebrahim, Shah and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Emilsson, Valur and Eriksson, Johan G and Fauser, Bart C J M and Ferreli, Liana and Ferrucci, Luigi and Fischer, Krista and Folsom, Aaron R and Garcia, Melissa E and Gasparini, Paolo and Gieger, Christian and Glazer, Nicole and Grobbee, Diederick E and Hall, Per and Haller, Toomas and Hankinson, Susan E and Hass, Merli and Hayward, Caroline and Heath, Andrew C and Hofman, Albert and Ingelsson, Erik and Janssens, A Cecile J W and Johnson, Andrew D and Karasik, David and Kardia, Sharon L R and Keyzer, Jules and Kiel, Douglas P and Kolcic, Ivana and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Lahti, Jari and Lai, Sandra and Laisk, Triin and Laven, Joop S E and Lawlor, Debbie A and Liu, Jianjun and Lopez, Lorna M and Louwers, Yvonne V and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Marongiu, Mara and Martin, Nicholas G and Klaric, Irena Martinovic and Masciullo, Corrado and McKnight, Barbara and Medland, Sarah E and Melzer, David and Mooser, Vincent and Navarro, Pau and Newman, Anne B and Nyholt, Dale R and Onland-Moret, N Charlotte and Palotie, Aarno and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Parker, Alex N and Pedersen, Nancy L and Peeters, Petra H M and Pistis, Giorgio and Plump, Andrew S and Polasek, Ozren and Pop, Victor J M and Psaty, Bruce M and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Rehnberg, Emil and Rotter, Jerome I and Rudan, Igor and Sala, Cinzia and Salumets, Andres and Scuteri, Angelo and Singleton, Andrew and Smith, Jennifer A and Snieder, Harold and Soranzo, Nicole and Stacey, Simon N and Starr, John M and Stathopoulou, Maria G and Stirrups, Kathleen and Stolk, Ronald P and Styrkarsdottir, Unnur and Sun, Yan V and Tenesa, Albert and Thorand, Barbara and Toniolo, Daniela and Tryggvadottir, Laufey and Tsui, Kim and Ulivi, Sheila and van Dam, Rob M and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and van Gils, Carla H and van Nierop, Peter and Vink, Jacqueline M and Visscher, Peter M and Voorhuis, Marlies and Waeber, G{\'e}rard and Wallaschofski, Henri and Wichmann, H Erich and Widen, Elisabeth and Wijnands-van Gent, Colette J M and Willemsen, Gonneke and Wilson, James F and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Wright, Alan F and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Zemunik, Tatijana and Zgaga, Lina and Zillikens, M Carola and Zygmunt, Marek and Arnold, Alice M and Boomsma, Dorret I and Buring, Julie E and Crisponi, Laura and Demerath, Ellen W and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Hu, Frank B and Hunter, David J and Launer, Lenore J and Metspalu, Andres and Montgomery, Grant W and Oostra, Ben A and Ridker, Paul M and Sanna, Serena and Schlessinger, David and Spector, Tim D and Stefansson, Kari and Streeten, Elizabeth A and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Uda, Manuela and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Murray, Anna and Murabito, Joanne M and Visser, Jenny A and Lunetta, Kathryn L} } @article {1383, title = {Meta-analysis identifies six new susceptibility loci for atrial fibrillation.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {44}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Apr 29}, pages = {670-5}, abstract = {

Atrial fibrillation is a highly prevalent arrhythmia and a major risk factor for stroke, heart failure and death. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in individuals of European ancestry, including 6,707 with and 52,426 without atrial fibrillation. Six new atrial fibrillation susceptibility loci were identified and replicated in an additional sample of individuals of European ancestry, including 5,381 subjects with and 10,030 subjects without atrial fibrillation (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Four of the loci identified in Europeans were further replicated in silico in a GWAS of Japanese individuals, including 843 individuals with and 3,350 individuals without atrial fibrillation. The identified loci implicate candidate genes that encode transcription factors related to cardiopulmonary development, cardiac-expressed ion channels and cell signaling molecules.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Atrial Fibrillation, Child, Child, Preschool, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, Young Adult}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2261}, author = {Ellinor, Patrick T and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Albert, Christine M and Glazer, Nicole L and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Smith, Albert V and Arking, Dan E and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Krijthe, Bouwe P and Lubitz, Steven A and Bis, Joshua C and Chung, Mina K and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Ozaki, Kouichi and Roberts, Jason D and Smith, J Gustav and Pfeufer, Arne and Sinner, Moritz F and Lohman, Kurt and Ding, Jingzhong and Smith, Nicholas L and Smith, Jonathan D and Rienstra, Michiel and Rice, Kenneth M and Van Wagoner, David R and Magnani, Jared W and Wakili, Reza and Clauss, Sebastian and Rotter, Jerome I and Steinbeck, Gerhard and Launer, Lenore J and Davies, Robert W and Borkovich, Matthew and Harris, Tamara B and Lin, Honghuang and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Milan, David J and Hofman, Albert and Boerwinkle, Eric and Chen, Lin Y and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Voight, Benjamin F and Li, Guo and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Kubo, Michiaki and Tedrow, Usha B and Rose, Lynda M and Ridker, Paul M and Conen, David and Tsunoda, Tatsuhiko and Furukawa, Tetsushi and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Xu, Siyan and Kamatani, Naoyuki and Levy, Daniel and Nakamura, Yusuke and Parvez, Babar and Mahida, Saagar and Furie, Karen L and Rosand, Jonathan and Muhammad, Raafia and Psaty, Bruce M and Meitinger, Thomas and Perz, Siegfried and Wichmann, H-Erich and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Kao, W H Linda and Kathiresan, Sekar and Roden, Dan M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rivadeneira, Fernando and McKnight, Barbara and Sj{\"o}gren, Marketa and Newman, Anne B and Liu, Yongmei and Gollob, Michael H and Melander, Olle and Tanaka, Toshihiro and Stricker, Bruno H Ch and Felix, Stephan B and Alonso, Alvaro and Darbar, Dawood and Barnard, John and Chasman, Daniel I and Heckbert, Susan R and Benjamin, Emelia J and Gudnason, Vilmundur and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan} } @article {1400, title = {Modification of the association between ambient air pollution and lung function by frailty status among older adults in the Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, volume = {176}, year = {2012}, month = {2012 Aug 01}, pages = {214-23}, abstract = {

The susceptibility of older adults to the health effects of air pollution is well-recognized. Advanced age may act as a partial surrogate for conditions associated with aging. The authors investigated whether gerontologic frailty (a clinical health status metric) modified the association between ambient level of ozone or particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 10 {\textmu}m and lung function in 3,382 older adults using 7 years of follow-up data (1990-1997) from the Cardiovascular Health Study and its Environmental Factors Ancillary Study. Monthly average pollution and annual frailty assessments were related to up to 3 repeated measurements of lung function using cumulative summaries of pollution and frailty histories that accounted for duration as well as concentration. Frailty history was found to modify long-term associations of pollutants with forced vital capacity. For example, the decrease in forced vital capacity associated with a 70-ppb/month greater cumulative sum of monthly average ozone exposure was 12.3 mL (95\% confidence interval: 10.4, 14.2) for a woman who had spent the prior 7 years prefrail or frail as compared with 4.7 mL (95\% confidence interval: 3.8, 5.6) for a similar woman who was robust during all 7 years (interaction P < 0.001).

}, keywords = {Aged, Air Pollution, Cardiovascular Diseases, Female, Forced Expiratory Volume, Frail Elderly, Geriatric Assessment, Humans, Male, Prospective Studies, Respiratory Function Tests, Sex Factors, Smoking, Time Factors, United States, Vital Capacity}, issn = {1476-6256}, doi = {10.1093/aje/kws001}, author = {Eckel, Sandrah P and Louis, Thomas A and Chaves, Paulo H M and Fried, Linda P and Margolis, And Helene G} } @article {1388, title = {Multi-ethnic analysis of lipid-associated loci: the NHLBI CARe project.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {7}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, pages = {e36473}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Whereas it is well established that plasma lipid levels have substantial heritability within populations, it remains unclear how many of the genetic determinants reported in previous studies (largely performed in European American cohorts) are relevant in different ethnicities.

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We tested a set of \~{}50,000 polymorphisms from \~{}2,000 candidate genes and genetic loci from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for association with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and triglycerides (TG) in 25,000 European Americans and 9,000 African Americans in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Candidate Gene Association Resource (CARe). We replicated associations for a number of genes in one or both ethnicities and identified a novel lipid-associated variant in a locus harboring ICAM1. We compared the architecture of genetic loci associated with lipids in both African Americans and European Americans and found that the same genes were relevant across ethnic groups but the specific associated variants at each gene often differed.

CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We identify or provide further evidence for a number of genetic determinants of plasma lipid levels through population association studies. In many loci the determinants appear to differ substantially between African Americans and European Americans.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, European Continental Ancestry Group, Genetic Association Studies, Genetic Loci, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Triglycerides}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0036473}, author = {Musunuru, Kiran and Romaine, Simon P R and Lettre, Guillaume and Wilson, James G and Volcik, Kelly A and Tsai, Michael Y and Taylor, Herman A and Schreiner, Pamela J and Rotter, Jerome I and Rich, Stephen S and Redline, Susan and Psaty, Bruce M and Papanicolaou, George J and Ordovas, Jose M and Liu, Kiang and Krauss, Ronald M and Glazer, Nicole L and Gabriel, Stacey B and Fornage, Myriam and Cupples, L Adrienne and Buxbaum, Sarah G and Boerwinkle, Eric and Ballantyne, Christie M and Kathiresan, Sekar and Rader, Daniel J} } @article {6078, title = {A meta-analysis identifies new loci associated with body mass index in individuals of African ancestry.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {45}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Jun}, pages = {690-6}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 36 loci associated with body mass index (BMI), predominantly in populations of European ancestry. We conducted a meta-analysis to examine the association of >3.2 million SNPs with BMI in 39,144 men and women of African ancestry and followed up the most significant associations in an additional 32,268 individuals of African ancestry. We identified one new locus at 5q33 (GALNT10, rs7708584, P = 3.4 {\texttimes} 10(-11)) and another at 7p15 when we included data from the GIANT consortium (MIR148A-NFE2L3, rs10261878, P = 1.2 {\texttimes} 10(-10)). We also found suggestive evidence of an association at a third locus at 6q16 in the African-ancestry sample (KLHL32, rs974417, P = 6.9 {\texttimes} 10(-8)). Thirty-two of the 36 previously established BMI variants showed directionally consistent effect estimates in our GWAS (binomial P = 9.7 {\texttimes} 10(-7)), five of which reached genome-wide significance. These findings provide strong support for shared BMI loci across populations, as well as for the utility of studying ancestrally diverse populations.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Body Mass Index, Case-Control Studies, Gene Frequency, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Linkage Disequilibrium, Obesity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2608}, author = {Monda, Keri L and Chen, Gary K and Taylor, Kira C and Palmer, Cameron and Edwards, Todd L and Lange, Leslie A and Ng, Maggie C Y and Adeyemo, Adebowale A and Allison, Matthew A and Bielak, Lawrence F and Chen, Guanjie and Graff, Mariaelisa and Irvin, Marguerite R and Rhie, Suhn K and Li, Guo and Liu, Yongmei and Liu, Youfang and Lu, Yingchang and Nalls, Michael A and Sun, Yan V and Wojczynski, Mary K and Yanek, Lisa R and Aldrich, Melinda C and Ademola, Adeyinka and Amos, Christopher I and Bandera, Elisa V and Bock, Cathryn H and Britton, Angela and Broeckel, Ulrich and Cai, Quiyin and Caporaso, Neil E and Carlson, Chris S and Carpten, John and Casey, Graham and Chen, Wei-Min and Chen, Fang and Chen, Yii-der I and Chiang, Charleston W K and Coetzee, Gerhard A and Demerath, Ellen and Deming-Halverson, Sandra L and Driver, Ryan W and Dubbert, Patricia and Feitosa, Mary F and Feng, Ye and Freedman, Barry I and Gillanders, Elizabeth M and Gottesman, Omri and Guo, Xiuqing and Haritunians, Talin and Harris, Tamara and Harris, Curtis C and Hennis, Anselm J M and Hernandez, Dena G and McNeill, Lorna H and Howard, Timothy D and Howard, Barbara V and Howard, Virginia J and Johnson, Karen C and Kang, Sun J and Keating, Brendan J and Kolb, Suzanne and Kuller, Lewis H and Kutlar, Abdullah and Langefeld, Carl D and Lettre, Guillaume and Lohman, Kurt and Lotay, Vaneet and Lyon, Helen and Manson, JoAnn E and Maixner, William and Meng, Yan A and Monroe, Kristine R and Morhason-Bello, Imran and Murphy, Adam B and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Nadukuru, Rajiv and Nathanson, Katherine L and Nayak, Uma and N{\textquoteright}diaye, Amidou and Nemesure, Barbara and Wu, Suh-Yuh and Leske, M Cristina and Neslund-Dudas, Christine and Neuhouser, Marian and Nyante, Sarah and Ochs-Balcom, Heather and Ogunniyi, Adesola and Ogundiran, Temidayo O and Ojengbede, Oladosu and Olopade, Olufunmilayo I and Palmer, Julie R and Ruiz-Narvaez, Edward A and Palmer, Nicholette D and Press, Michael F and Rampersaud, Evandine and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Rodriguez-Gil, Jorge L and Salako, Babatunde and Schadt, Eric E and Schwartz, Ann G and Shriner, Daniel A and Siscovick, David and Smith, Shad B and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Speliotes, Elizabeth K and Spitz, Margaret R and Sucheston, Lara and Taylor, Herman and Tayo, Bamidele O and Tucker, Margaret A and Van Den Berg, David J and Edwards, Digna R Velez and Wang, Zhaoming and Wiencke, John K and Winkler, Thomas W and Witte, John S and Wrensch, Margaret and Wu, Xifeng and Yang, James J and Levin, Albert M and Young, Taylor R and Zakai, Neil A and Cushman, Mary and Zanetti, Krista A and Zhao, Jing Hua and Zhao, Wei and Zheng, Yonglan and Zhou, Jie and Ziegler, Regina G and Zmuda, Joseph M and Fernandes, Jyotika K and Gilkeson, Gary S and Kamen, Diane L and Hunt, Kelly J and Spruill, Ida J and Ambrosone, Christine B and Ambs, Stefan and Arnett, Donna K and Atwood, Larry and Becker, Diane M and Berndt, Sonja I and Bernstein, Leslie and Blot, William J and Borecki, Ingrid B and Bottinger, Erwin P and Bowden, Donald W and Burke, Gregory and Chanock, Stephen J and Cooper, Richard S and Ding, Jingzhong and Duggan, David and Evans, Michele K and Fox, Caroline and Garvey, W Timothy and Bradfield, Jonathan P and Hakonarson, Hakon and Grant, Struan F A and Hsing, Ann and Chu, Lisa and Hu, Jennifer J and Huo, Dezheng and Ingles, Sue A and John, Esther M and Jordan, Joanne M and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kittles, Rick A and Goodman, Phyllis J and Klein, Eric A and Kolonel, Laurence N and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Liu, Simin and McKnight, Barbara and Millikan, Robert C and Mosley, Thomas H and Padhukasahasram, Badri and Williams, L Keoki and Patel, Sanjay R and Peters, Ulrike and Pettaway, Curtis A and Peyser, Patricia A and Psaty, Bruce M and Redline, Susan and Rotimi, Charles N and Rybicki, Benjamin A and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Schreiner, Pamela J and Signorello, Lisa B and Singleton, Andrew B and Stanford, Janet L and Strom, Sara S and Thun, Michael J and Vitolins, Mara and Zheng, Wei and Moore, Jason H and Williams, Scott M and Ketkar, Shamika and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Zonderman, Alan B and Kooperberg, Charles and Papanicolaou, George J and Henderson, Brian E and Reiner, Alex P and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Loos, Ruth J F and North, Kari E and Haiman, Christopher A} } @article {6156, title = {Meta-analysis of 74,046 individuals identifies 11 new susceptibility loci for Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {45}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Dec}, pages = {1452-8}, abstract = {

Eleven susceptibility loci for late-onset Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease (LOAD) were identified by previous studies; however, a large portion of the genetic risk for this disease remains unexplained. We conducted a large, two-stage meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in individuals of European ancestry. In stage 1, we used genotyped and imputed data (7,055,881 SNPs) to perform meta-analysis on 4 previously published GWAS data sets consisting of 17,008 Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease cases and 37,154 controls. In stage 2, 11,632 SNPs were genotyped and tested for association in an independent set of 8,572 Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease cases and 11,312 controls. In addition to the APOE locus (encoding apolipoprotein E), 19 loci reached genome-wide significance (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10(-8)) in the combined stage 1 and stage 2 analysis, of which 11 are newly associated with Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease.

}, keywords = {Age of Onset, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alzheimer Disease, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Female, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.2802}, author = {Lambert, J C and Ibrahim-Verbaas, C A and Harold, D and Naj, A C and Sims, R and Bellenguez, C and DeStafano, A L and Bis, J C and Beecham, G W and Grenier-Boley, B and Russo, G and Thorton-Wells, T A and Jones, N and Smith, A V and Chouraki, V and Thomas, C and Ikram, M A and Zelenika, D and Vardarajan, B N and Kamatani, Y and Lin, C F and Gerrish, A and Schmidt, H and Kunkle, B and Dunstan, M L and Ruiz, A and Bihoreau, M T and Choi, S H and Reitz, C and Pasquier, F and Cruchaga, C and Craig, D and Amin, N and Berr, C and Lopez, O L and De Jager, P L and Deramecourt, V and Johnston, J A and Evans, D and Lovestone, S and Letenneur, L and Mor{\'o}n, F J and Rubinsztein, D C and Eiriksdottir, G and Sleegers, K and Goate, A M and Fi{\'e}vet, N and Huentelman, M W and Gill, M and Brown, K and Kamboh, M I and Keller, L and Barberger-Gateau, P and McGuiness, B and Larson, E B and Green, R and Myers, A J and Dufouil, C and Todd, S and Wallon, D and Love, S and Rogaeva, E and Gallacher, J and St George-Hyslop, P and Clarimon, J and Lleo, A and Bayer, A and Tsuang, D W and Yu, L and Tsolaki, M and Boss{\`u}, P and Spalletta, G and Proitsi, P and Collinge, J and Sorbi, S and Sanchez-Garcia, F and Fox, N C and Hardy, J and Deniz Naranjo, M C and Bosco, P and Clarke, R and Brayne, C and Galimberti, D and Mancuso, M and Matthews, F and Moebus, S and Mecocci, P and Del Zompo, M and Maier, W and Hampel, H and Pilotto, A and Bullido, M and Panza, F and Caffarra, P and Nacmias, B and Gilbert, J R and Mayhaus, M and Lannefelt, L and Hakonarson, H and Pichler, S and Carrasquillo, M M and Ingelsson, M and Beekly, D and Alvarez, V and Zou, F and Valladares, O and Younkin, S G and Coto, E and Hamilton-Nelson, K L and Gu, W and Razquin, C and Pastor, P and Mateo, I and Owen, M J and Faber, K M and Jonsson, P V and Combarros, O and O{\textquoteright}Donovan, M C and Cantwell, L B and Soininen, H and Blacker, D and Mead, S and Mosley, T H and Bennett, D A and Harris, T B and Fratiglioni, L and Holmes, C and de Bruijn, R F and Passmore, P and Montine, T J and Bettens, K and Rotter, J I and Brice, A and Morgan, K and Foroud, T M and Kukull, W A and Hannequin, D and Powell, J F and Nalls, M A and Ritchie, K and Lunetta, K L and Kauwe, J S and Boerwinkle, E and Riemenschneider, M and Boada, M and Hiltuenen, M and Martin, E R and Schmidt, R and Rujescu, D and Wang, L S and Dartigues, J F and Mayeux, R and Tzourio, C and Hofman, A and N{\"o}then, M M and Graff, C and Psaty, B M and Jones, L and Haines, J L and Holmans, P A and Lathrop, M and Pericak-Vance, M A and Launer, L J and Farrer, L A and van Duijn, C M and Van Broeckhoven, C and Moskvina, V and Seshadri, S and Williams, J and Schellenberg, G D and Amouyel, P} } @article {6291, title = {Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies six new Loci for serum calcium concentrations.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {9}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e1003796}, abstract = {

Calcium is vital to the normal functioning of multiple organ systems and its serum concentration is tightly regulated. Apart from CASR, the genes associated with serum calcium are largely unknown. We conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis of 39,400 individuals from 17 population-based cohorts and investigated the 14 most strongly associated loci in <= 21,679 additional individuals. Seven loci (six new regions) in association with serum calcium were identified and replicated. Rs1570669 near CYP24A1 (P = 9.1E-12), rs10491003 upstream of GATA3 (P = 4.8E-09) and rs7481584 in CARS (P = 1.2E-10) implicate regions involved in Mendelian calcemic disorders: Rs1550532 in DGKD (P = 8.2E-11), also associated with bone density, and rs7336933 near DGKH/KIAA0564 (P = 9.1E-10) are near genes that encode distinct isoforms of diacylglycerol kinase. Rs780094 is in GCKR. We characterized the expression of these genes in gut, kidney, and bone, and demonstrate modulation of gene expression in bone in response to dietary calcium in mice. Our results shed new light on the genetics of calcium homeostasis.

}, keywords = {Animals, Bone and Bones, Bone Density, Calcium, European Continental Ancestry Group, Gene Expression Regulation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Homeostasis, Humans, Kidney, Mice, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1003796}, author = {O{\textquoteright}Seaghdha, Conall M and Wu, Hongsheng and Yang, Qiong and Kapur, Karen and Guessous, Idris and Zuber, Annie Mercier and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Stoudmann, Candice and Teumer, Alexander and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Mangino, Massimo and Dehghan, Abbas and Zhang, Weihua and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Li, Guo and Tanaka, Toshiko and Portas, Laura and Lopez, Lorna M and Hayward, Caroline and Lohman, Kurt and Matsuda, Koichi and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Firsov, Dmitri and Sorice, Rossella and Ulivi, Sheila and Brockhaus, A Catharina and Kleber, Marcus E and Mahajan, Anubha and Ernst, Florian D and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Launer, Lenore J and Mace, Aurelien and Boerwinckle, Eric and Arking, Dan E and Tanikawa, Chizu and Nakamura, Yusuke and Brown, Morris J and Gaspoz, Jean-Michel and Theler, Jean-Marc and Siscovick, David S and Psaty, Bruce M and Bergmann, Sven and Vollenweider, Peter and Vitart, Veronique and Wright, Alan F and Zemunik, Tatijana and Boban, Mladen and Kolcic, Ivana and Navarro, Pau and Brown, Edward M and Estrada, Karol and Ding, Jingzhong and Harris, Tamara B and Bandinelli, Stefania and Hernandez, Dena and Singleton, Andrew B and Girotto, Giorgia and Ruggiero, Daniela and d{\textquoteright}Adamo, Adamo Pio and Robino, Antonietta and Meitinger, Thomas and Meisinger, Christa and Davies, Gail and Starr, John M and Chambers, John C and Boehm, Bernhard O and Winkelmann, Bernhard R and Huang, Jie and Murgia, Federico and Wild, Sarah H and Campbell, Harry and Morris, Andrew P and Franco, Oscar H and Hofman, Albert and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Rivadeneira, Fernando and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Hannemann, Anke and Biffar, Reiner and Hoffmann, Wolfgang and Shin, So-Youn and Lescuyer, Pierre and Henry, Hughes and Schurmann, Claudia and Munroe, Patricia B and Gasparini, Paolo and Pirastu, Nicola and Ciullo, Marina and Gieger, Christian and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Lind, Lars and Spector, Tim D and Smith, Albert V and Rudan, Igor and Wilson, James F and Polasek, Ozren and Deary, Ian J and Pirastu, Mario and Ferrucci, Luigi and Liu, Yongmei and Kestenbaum, Bryan and Kooner, Jaspal S and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and Nauck, Matthias and Kao, W H Linda and Wallaschofski, Henri and Bonny, Olivier and Fox, Caroline S and Bochud, Murielle} } @article {5877, title = {A meta-analysis of thyroid-related traits reveals novel loci and gender-specific differences in the regulation of thyroid function.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {9}, year = {2013}, month = {2013}, pages = {e1003266}, abstract = {

Thyroid hormone is essential for normal metabolism and development, and overt abnormalities in thyroid function lead to common endocrine disorders affecting approximately 10\% of individuals over their life span. In addition, even mild alterations in thyroid function are associated with weight changes, atrial fibrillation, osteoporosis, and psychiatric disorders. To identify novel variants underlying thyroid function, we performed a large meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for serum levels of the highly heritable thyroid function markers TSH and FT4, in up to 26,420 and 17,520 euthyroid subjects, respectively. Here we report 26 independent associations, including several novel loci for TSH (PDE10A, VEGFA, IGFBP5, NFIA, SOX9, PRDM11, FGF7, INSR, ABO, MIR1179, NRG1, MBIP, ITPK1, SASH1, GLIS3) and FT4 (LHX3, FOXE1, AADAT, NETO1/FBXO15, LPCAT2/CAPNS2). Notably, only limited overlap was detected between TSH and FT4 associated signals, in spite of the feedback regulation of their circulating levels by the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis. Five of the reported loci (PDE8B, PDE10A, MAF/LOC440389, NETO1/FBXO15, and LPCAT2/CAPNS2) show strong gender-specific differences, which offer clues for the known sexual dimorphism in thyroid function and related pathologies. Importantly, the TSH-associated loci contribute not only to variation within the normal range, but also to TSH values outside the reference range, suggesting that they may be involved in thyroid dysfunction. Overall, our findings explain, respectively, 5.64\% and 2.30\% of total TSH and FT4 trait variance, and they improve the current knowledge of the regulation of hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis function and the consequences of genetic variation for hypo- or hyperthyroidism.

}, keywords = {Female, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hyperthyroidism, Hypothyroidism, Male, Phenotype, Polymorphism, Genetic, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Sex Characteristics, Signal Transduction, Thyroid Gland, Thyrotropin, Thyroxine}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1003266}, author = {Porcu, Eleonora and Medici, Marco and Pistis, Giorgio and Volpato, Claudia B and Wilson, Scott G and Cappola, Anne R and Bos, Steffan D and Deelen, Joris and den Heijer, Martin and Freathy, Rachel M and Lahti, Jari and Liu, Chunyu and Lopez, Lorna M and Nolte, Ilja M and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Tanaka, Toshiko and Trompet, Stella and Arnold, Alice and Bandinelli, Stefania and Beekman, Marian and B{\"o}hringer, Stefan and Brown, Suzanne J and Buckley, Brendan M and Camaschella, Clara and de Craen, Anton J M and Davies, Gail and de Visser, Marieke C H and Ford, Ian and Forsen, Tom and Frayling, Timothy M and Fugazzola, Laura and G{\"o}gele, Martin and Hattersley, Andrew T and Hermus, Ad R and Hofman, Albert and Houwing-Duistermaat, Jeanine J and Jensen, Richard A and Kajantie, Eero and Kloppenburg, Margreet and Lim, Ee M and Masciullo, Corrado and Mariotti, Stefano and Minelli, Cosetta and Mitchell, Braxton D and Nagaraja, Ramaiah and Netea-Maier, Romana T and Palotie, Aarno and Persani, Luca and Piras, Maria G and Psaty, Bruce M and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Richards, J Brent and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Sala, Cinzia and Sabra, Mona M and Sattar, Naveed and Shields, Beverley M and Soranzo, Nicole and Starr, John M and Stott, David J and Sweep, Fred C G J and Usala, Gianluca and van der Klauw, Melanie M and van Heemst, Diana and van Mullem, Alies and Vermeulen, Sita H and Visser, W Edward and Walsh, John P and Westendorp, Rudi G J and Widen, Elisabeth and Zhai, Guangju and Cucca, Francesco and Deary, Ian J and Eriksson, Johan G and Ferrucci, Luigi and Fox, Caroline S and Jukema, J Wouter and Kiemeney, Lambertus A and Pramstaller, Peter P and Schlessinger, David and Shuldiner, Alan R and Slagboom, Eline P and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vaidya, Bijay and Visser, Theo J and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Meulenbelt, Ingrid and Rotter, Jerome I and Spector, Tim D and Hicks, Andrew A and Toniolo, Daniela and Sanna, Serena and Peeters, Robin P and Naitza, Silvia} } @article {6155, title = {Multiethnic meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in >100 000 subjects identifies 23 fibrinogen-associated Loci but no strong evidence of a causal association between circulating fibrinogen and cardiovascular disease.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {128}, year = {2013}, month = {2013 Sep 17}, pages = {1310-24}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Estimates of the heritability of plasma fibrinogen concentration, an established predictor of cardiovascular disease, range from 34\% to 50\%. Genetic variants so far identified by genome-wide association studies explain only a small proportion (<2\%) of its variation.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We conducted a meta-analysis of 28 genome-wide association studies including >90 000 subjects of European ancestry, the first genome-wide association meta-analysis of fibrinogen levels in 7 studies in blacks totaling 8289 samples, and a genome-wide association study in Hispanics totaling 1366 samples. Evaluation for association of single-nucleotide polymorphisms with clinical outcomes included a total of 40 695 cases and 85 582 controls for coronary artery disease, 4752 cases and 24 030 controls for stroke, and 3208 cases and 46 167 controls for venous thromboembolism. Overall, we identified 24 genome-wide significant (P<5{\texttimes}10(-8)) independent signals in 23 loci, including 15 novel associations, together accounting for 3.7\% of plasma fibrinogen variation. Gene-set enrichment analysis highlighted key roles in fibrinogen regulation for the 3 structural fibrinogen genes and pathways related to inflammation, adipocytokines, and thyrotrophin-releasing hormone signaling. Whereas lead single-nucleotide polymorphisms in a few loci were significantly associated with coronary artery disease, the combined effect of all 24 fibrinogen-associated lead single-nucleotide polymorphisms was not significant for coronary artery disease, stroke, or venous thromboembolism.

CONCLUSIONS: We identify 23 robustly associated fibrinogen loci, 15 of which are new. Clinical outcome analysis of these loci does not support a causal relationship between circulating levels of fibrinogen and coronary artery disease, stroke, or venous thromboembolism.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cardiovascular Diseases, Coronary Artery Disease, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Fibrinogen, Genetic Loci, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hispanic Americans, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Myocardial Infarction, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, Stroke, Venous Thromboembolism, Young Adult}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.113.002251}, author = {Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Huang, Jie and Chasman, Daniel and Naitza, Silvia and Dehghan, Abbas and Johnson, Andrew D and Teumer, Alexander and Reiner, Alex P and Folkersen, Lasse and Basu, Saonli and Rudnicka, Alicja R and Trompet, Stella and M{\"a}larstig, Anders and Baumert, Jens and Bis, Joshua C and Guo, Xiuqing and Hottenga, Jouke J and Shin, So-Youn and Lopez, Lorna M and Lahti, Jari and Tanaka, Toshiko and Yanek, Lisa R and Oudot-Mellakh, Tiphaine and Wilson, James F and Navarro, Pau and Huffman, Jennifer E and Zemunik, Tatijana and Redline, Susan and Mehra, Reena and Pulanic, Drazen and Rudan, Igor and Wright, Alan F and Kolcic, Ivana and Polasek, Ozren and Wild, Sarah H and Campbell, Harry and Curb, J David and Wallace, Robert and Liu, Simin and Eaton, Charles B and Becker, Diane M and Becker, Lewis C and Bandinelli, Stefania and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Widen, Elisabeth and Palotie, Aarno and Fornage, Myriam and Green, David and Gross, Myron and Davies, Gail and Harris, Sarah E and Liewald, David C and Starr, John M and Williams, Frances M K and Grant, Peter J and Spector, Timothy D and Strawbridge, Rona J and Silveira, Angela and Sennblad, Bengt and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Franco, Oscar H and Hofman, Albert and van Dongen, Jenny and Willemsen, Gonneke and Boomsma, Dorret I and Yao, Jie and Swords Jenny, Nancy and Haritunians, Talin and McKnight, Barbara and Lumley, Thomas and Taylor, Kent D and Rotter, Jerome I and Psaty, Bruce M and Peters, Annette and Gieger, Christian and Illig, Thomas and Grotevendt, Anne and Homuth, Georg and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Kocher, Thomas and Goel, Anuj and Franzosi, Maria Grazia and Seedorf, Udo and Clarke, Robert and Steri, Maristella and Tarasov, Kirill V and Sanna, Serena and Schlessinger, David and Stott, David J and Sattar, Naveed and Buckley, Brendan M and Rumley, Ann and Lowe, Gordon D and McArdle, Wendy L and Chen, Ming-Huei and Tofler, Geoffrey H and Song, Jaejoon and Boerwinkle, Eric and Folsom, Aaron R and Rose, Lynda M and Franco-Cereceda, Anders and Teichert, Martina and Ikram, M Arfan and Mosley, Thomas H and Bevan, Steve and Dichgans, Martin and Rothwell, Peter M and Sudlow, Cathie L M and Hopewell, Jemma C and Chambers, John C and Saleheen, Danish and Kooner, Jaspal S and Danesh, John and Nelson, Christopher P and Erdmann, Jeanette and Reilly, Muredach P and Kathiresan, Sekar and Schunkert, Heribert and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel and Ferrucci, Luigi and Eriksson, Johan G and Jacobs, David and Deary, Ian J and Soranzo, Nicole and Witteman, Jacqueline C M and de Geus, Eco J C and Tracy, Russell P and Hayward, Caroline and Koenig, Wolfgang and Cucca, Francesco and Jukema, J Wouter and Eriksson, Per and Seshadri, Sudha and Markus, Hugh S and Watkins, Hugh and Samani, Nilesh J and Wallaschofski, Henri and Smith, Nicholas L and Tregouet, David and Ridker, Paul M and Tang, Weihong and Strachan, David P and Hamsten, Anders and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J} } @article {6574, title = {Meta-analysis in more than 17,900 cases of ischemic stroke reveals a novel association at 12q24.12.}, journal = {Neurology}, volume = {83}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Aug 19}, pages = {678-85}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To perform a genome-wide association study (GWAS) using the Immunochip array in 3,420 cases of ischemic stroke and 6,821 controls, followed by a meta-analysis with data from more than 14,000 additional ischemic stroke cases.

METHODS: Using the Immunochip, we genotyped 3,420 ischemic stroke cases and 6,821 controls. After imputation we meta-analyzed the results with imputed GWAS data from 3,548 cases and 5,972 controls recruited from the ischemic stroke WTCCC2 study, and with summary statistics from a further 8,480 cases and 56,032 controls in the METASTROKE consortium. A final in silico "look-up" of 2 single nucleotide polymorphisms in 2,522 cases and 1,899 controls was performed. Associations were also examined in 1,088 cases with intracerebral hemorrhage and 1,102 controls.

RESULTS: In an overall analysis of 17,970 cases of ischemic stroke and 70,764 controls, we identified a novel association on chromosome 12q24 (rs10744777, odds ratio [OR] 1.10 [1.07-1.13], p = 7.12 {\texttimes} 10(-11)) with ischemic stroke. The association was with all ischemic stroke rather than an individual stroke subtype, with similar effect sizes seen in different stroke subtypes. There was no association with intracerebral hemorrhage (OR 1.03 [0.90-1.17], p = 0.695).

CONCLUSION: Our results show, for the first time, a genetic risk locus associated with ischemic stroke as a whole, rather than in a subtype-specific manner. This finding was not associated with intracerebral hemorrhage.

}, keywords = {Brain Ischemia, Cerebral Hemorrhage, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 12, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk, Stroke}, issn = {1526-632X}, doi = {10.1212/WNL.0000000000000707}, author = {Kilarski, Laura L and Achterberg, Sefanja and Devan, William J and Traylor, Matthew and Malik, Rainer and Lindgren, Arne and Pare, Guillame and Sharma, Pankaj and Slowik, Agniesczka and Thijs, Vincent and Walters, Matthew and Worrall, Bradford B and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Algra, Ale and Kappelle, L Jaap and Wijmenga, Cisca and Norrving, Bo and Sandling, Johanna K and R{\"o}nnblom, Lars and Goris, An and Franke, Andre and Sudlow, Cathie and Rothwell, Peter M and Levi, Christopher and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Fornage, Myriam and Psaty, Bruce and Gretarsdottir, Solveig and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnar and Seshadri, Sudha and Mitchell, Braxton D and Kittner, Steven and Clarke, Robert and Hopewell, Jemma C and Bis, Joshua C and Boncoraglio, Giorgio B and Meschia, James and Ikram, M Arfan and Hansen, Bjorn M and Montaner, Joan and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Stefanson, Kari and Rosand, Jonathan and de Bakker, Paul I W and Farrall, Martin and Dichgans, Martin and Markus, Hugh S and Bevan, Steve} } @article {6585, title = {Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in African Americans provides insights into the genetic architecture of type 2 diabetes.}, journal = {PLoS Genet}, volume = {10}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Aug}, pages = {e1004517}, abstract = {

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is more prevalent in African Americans than in Europeans. However, little is known about the genetic risk in African Americans despite the recent identification of more than 70 T2D loci primarily by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in individuals of European ancestry. In order to investigate the genetic architecture of T2D in African Americans, the MEta-analysis of type 2 DIabetes in African Americans (MEDIA) Consortium examined 17 GWAS on T2D comprising 8,284 cases and 15,543 controls in African Americans in stage 1 analysis. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) association analysis was conducted in each study under the additive model after adjustment for age, sex, study site, and principal components. Meta-analysis of approximately 2.6 million genotyped and imputed SNPs in all studies was conducted using an inverse variance-weighted fixed effect model. Replications were performed to follow up 21 loci in up to 6,061 cases and 5,483 controls in African Americans, and 8,130 cases and 38,987 controls of European ancestry. We identified three known loci (TCF7L2, HMGA2 and KCNQ1) and two novel loci (HLA-B and INS-IGF2) at genome-wide significance (4.15 {\texttimes} 10(-94)}, keywords = {African Americans, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Genome-Wide Association Study, HLA-B27 Antigen, HMGA2 Protein, Humans, KCNQ1 Potassium Channel, Mutant Chimeric Proteins, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Transcription Factor 7-Like 2 Protein}, issn = {1553-7404}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1004517}, author = {Ng, Maggie C Y and Shriner, Daniel and Chen, Brian H and Li, Jiang and Chen, Wei-Min and Guo, Xiuqing and Liu, Jiankang and Bielinski, Suzette J and Yanek, Lisa R and Nalls, Michael A and Comeau, Mary E and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Jensen, Richard A and Evans, Daniel S and Sun, Yan V and An, Ping and Patel, Sanjay R and Lu, Yingchang and Long, Jirong and Armstrong, Loren L and Wagenknecht, Lynne and Yang, Lingyao and Snively, Beverly M and Palmer, Nicholette D and Mudgal, Poorva and Langefeld, Carl D and Keene, Keith L and Freedman, Barry I and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Nayak, Uma and Raffel, Leslie J and Goodarzi, Mark O and Chen, Y-D Ida and Taylor, Herman A and Correa, Adolfo and Sims, Mario and Couper, David and Pankow, James S and Boerwinkle, Eric and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Doumatey, Ayo and Chen, Guanjie and Mathias, Rasika A and Vaidya, Dhananjay and Singleton, Andrew B and Zonderman, Alan B and Igo, Robert P and Sedor, John R and Kabagambe, Edmond K and Siscovick, David S and McKnight, Barbara and Rice, Kenneth and Liu, Yongmei and Hsueh, Wen-Chi and Zhao, Wei and Bielak, Lawrence F and Kraja, Aldi and Province, Michael A and Bottinger, Erwin P and Gottesman, Omri and Cai, Qiuyin and Zheng, Wei and Blot, William J and Lowe, William L and Pacheco, Jennifer A and Crawford, Dana C and Grundberg, Elin and Rich, Stephen S and Hayes, M Geoffrey and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Loos, Ruth J F and Borecki, Ingrid B and Peyser, Patricia A and Cummings, Steven R and Psaty, Bruce M and Fornage, Myriam and Iyengar, Sudha K and Evans, Michele K and Becker, Diane M and Kao, W H Linda and Wilson, James G and Rotter, Jerome I and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Liu, Simin and Rotimi, Charles N and Bowden, Donald W} } @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} } @article {6148, title = {Metabolic syndrome and risk of incident peripheral artery disease: the cardiovascular health study.}, journal = {Hypertension}, volume = {63}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Feb}, pages = {413-9}, abstract = {

Prior studies evaluating metabolic syndrome (MetS) and incident peripheral artery disease (PAD) have been limited by use of modified MetS criteria and restriction to clinical PAD end points. We investigated MetS and risk of developing a low ankle-brachial index (ABI) and clinical PAD in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a population-based cohort of adults aged >=65 years. Participants with MetS met at least 3 of 5 Adult Treatment Panel III criteria. Baseline C-reactive protein-MetS or fibrinogen-MetS were defined as presence of 3 of 6 components, with elevated C-reactive protein (>3 mg/L) or fibrinogen (>341 mg/dL) as a sixth component. Incident low ABI, defined as ABI <0.9 and decline of >=0.15, was assessed among a subset of 1899 individuals with 2 ABI measurements 6 years apart. Over a median follow-up of 13.7 years, 4632 individuals were followed up for clinical PAD, defined as revascularization or diagnosed claudication. Adult Treatment Panel III MetS was associated with both incident low ABI (risk ratio, 1.26; 95\% confidence interval [CI], 1.00-1.58) and clinical PAD (hazard ratio, 1.47; 95\% CI, 1.11-1.94). Incorporating C-reactive protein or fibrinogen into Adult Treatment Panel III criteria identified an additional 16\% to 20\% of individuals as having MetS, and both C-reactive protein-MetS and fibrinogen-MetS were associated with incident low ABI (risk ratio, 1.36; 95\% CI, 1.07-1.72 and risk ratio, 1.43; 95\% CI, 1.13-1.81, respectively) and clinical PAD (hazard ratio, 1.56; 95\% CI, 1.17-2.08 and hazard ratio, 1.55; 95\% CI, 1.17-2.07, respectively). Among Adult Treatment Panel III MetS criteria, risk of PAD was most strongly associated with hypertension.

}, keywords = {Aged, Ankle Brachial Index, C-Reactive Protein, Female, Fibrinogen, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Incidence, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Metabolic Syndrome, Peripheral Arterial Disease, Prevalence, Risk Factors, Vasculitis}, issn = {1524-4563}, doi = {10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.113.01925}, author = {Garg, Parveen K and Biggs, Mary L and Carnethon, Mercedes and Ix, Joachim H and Criqui, Michael H and Britton, Kathryn A and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Sutton-Tyrrell, Kim and Newman, Anne B and Cushman, Mary and Mukamal, Kenneth J} } @article {6360, title = {Multiancestral analysis of inflammation-related genetic variants and C-reactive protein in the population architecture using genomics and epidemiology study.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {7}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Apr}, pages = {178-88}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: C-reactive protein (CRP) is a biomarker of inflammation. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with CRP concentrations and inflammation-related traits such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and obesity. We aimed to replicate previous CRP-SNP associations, assess whether these associations generalize to additional race/ethnicity groups, and evaluate inflammation-related SNPs for a potentially pleiotropic association with CRP.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We selected and analyzed 16 CRP-associated and 250 inflammation-related GWAS SNPs among 40 473 African American, American Indian, Asian/Pacific Islander, European American, and Hispanic participants from 7 studies collaborating in the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study. Fixed-effect meta-analyses combined study-specific race/ethnicity-stratified linear regression estimates to evaluate the association between each SNP and high-sensitivity CRP. Overall, 18 SNPs in 8 loci were significantly associated with CRP (Bonferroni-corrected P<3.1{\texttimes}10(-3) for replication, P<2.0{\texttimes}10(-4) for pleiotropy): Seven of these were specific to European Americans, while 9 additionally generalized to African Americans (1), Hispanics (5), or both (3); 1 SNP was seen only in African Americans and Hispanics. Two SNPs in the CELSR2/PSRC1/SORT1 locus showed a potentially novel association with CRP: rs599839 (P=2.0{\texttimes}10(-6)) and rs646776 (P=3.1{\texttimes}10(-5)).

CONCLUSIONS: We replicated 16 SNP-CRP associations, 10 of which generalized to African Americans and/or Hispanics. We also identified potentially novel pleiotropic associations with CRP for two SNPs previously associated with coronary artery disease and/or low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol. These findings demonstrate the benefit of evaluating genotype-phenotype associations in multiple race/ethnicity groups and looking for pleiotropic relationships among SNPs previously associated with related phenotypes.

}, keywords = {Adult, African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, C-Reactive Protein, Female, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hispanic Americans, Humans, Indians, North American, Inflammation, Male, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, United States, Young Adult}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.113.000173}, author = {Kocarnik, Jonathan M and Pendergrass, Sarah A and Carty, Cara L and Pankow, James S and Schumacher, Fredrick R and Cheng, Iona and Durda, Peter and Ambite, Jose Luis and Deelman, Ewa and Cook, Nancy R and Liu, Simin and Wactawski-Wende, Jean and Hutter, Carolyn and Brown-Gentry, Kristin and Wilson, Sarah and Best, Lyle G and Pankratz, Nathan and Hong, Ching-Ping and Cole, Shelley A and Voruganti, V Saroja and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Jorgensen, Neal W and Jenny, Nancy S and Wilkens, Lynne R and Haiman, Christopher A and Kolonel, Laurence N and LaCroix, Andrea and North, Kari and Jackson, Rebecca and Le Marchand, Lo{\"\i}c and Hindorff, Lucia A and Crawford, Dana C and Gross, Myron and Peters, Ulrike} } @article {6297, title = {Multilocus genetic risk score associates with ischemic stroke in case-control and prospective cohort studies.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {45}, year = {2014}, month = {2014 Feb}, pages = {394-402}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Genome-wide association studies have revealed multiple common variants associated with known risk factors for ischemic stroke (IS). However, their aggregate effect on risk is uncertain. We aimed to generate a multilocus genetic risk score (GRS) for IS based on genome-wide association studies data from clinical-based samples and to establish its external validity in prospective population-based cohorts.

METHODS: Three thousand five hundred forty-eight clinic-based IS cases and 6399 controls from the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2 were used for derivation of the GRS. Subjects from the METASTROKE consortium served as a replication sample. The validation sample consisted of 22 751 participants from the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium. We selected variants that had reached genome-wide significance in previous association studies on established risk factors for IS.

RESULTS: A combined GRS for atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, hypertension, and systolic blood pressure significantly associated with IS both in the case-control samples and in the prospective population-based studies. Subjects in the top quintile of the combined GRS had >2-fold increased risk of IS compared with subjects in the lowest quintile. Addition of the combined GRS to a simple model based on sex significantly improved the prediction of IS in the combined clinic-based samples but not in the population-based studies, and there was no significant improvement in net reclassification.

CONCLUSIONS: A multilocus GRS based on common variants for established cardiovascular risk factors was significantly associated with IS both in clinic-based samples and in the general population. However, the improvement in clinical risk prediction was found to be small.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Atrial Fibrillation, Blood Pressure, Brain Ischemia, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Coronary Artery Disease, Female, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genetic Variation, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Male, Middle Aged, Multilocus Sequence Typing, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Population, Prospective Studies, Reproducibility of Results, Risk Assessment, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Stroke}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.113.002938}, author = {Malik, Rainer and Bevan, Steve and Nalls, Michael A and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Devan, William J and Cheng, Yu-Ching and Ibrahim-Verbaas, Carla A and Verhaaren, Benjamin F J and Bis, Joshua C and Joon, Aron Y and de Stefano, Anita L and Fornage, Myriam and Psaty, Bruce M and Ikram, M Arfan and Launer, Lenore J and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Sharma, Pankaj and Mitchell, Braxton D and Rosand, Jonathan and Meschia, James F and Levi, Christopher and Rothwell, Peter M and Sudlow, Cathie and Markus, Hugh S and Seshadri, Sudha and Dichgans, Martin} } @article {6568, title = {Mendelian randomization of blood lipids for coronary heart disease.}, journal = {Eur Heart J}, volume = {36}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Mar 01}, pages = {539-50}, abstract = {

AIMS: To investigate the causal role of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and triglycerides in coronary heart disease (CHD) using multiple instrumental variables for Mendelian randomization.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We developed weighted allele scores based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with established associations with HDL-C, triglycerides, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). For each trait, we constructed two scores. The first was unrestricted, including all independent SNPs associated with the lipid trait identified from a prior meta-analysis (threshold P < 2 {\texttimes} 10(-6)); and the second a restricted score, filtered to remove any SNPs also associated with either of the other two lipid traits at P <= 0.01. Mendelian randomization meta-analyses were conducted in 17 studies including 62,199 participants and 12,099 CHD events. Both the unrestricted and restricted allele scores for LDL-C (42 and 19 SNPs, respectively) associated with CHD. For HDL-C, the unrestricted allele score (48 SNPs) was associated with CHD (OR: 0.53; 95\% CI: 0.40, 0.70), per 1 mmol/L higher HDL-C, but neither the restricted allele score (19 SNPs; OR: 0.91; 95\% CI: 0.42, 1.98) nor the unrestricted HDL-C allele score adjusted for triglycerides, LDL-C, or statin use (OR: 0.81; 95\% CI: 0.44, 1.46) showed a robust association. For triglycerides, the unrestricted allele score (67 SNPs) and the restricted allele score (27 SNPs) were both associated with CHD (OR: 1.62; 95\% CI: 1.24, 2.11 and 1.61; 95\% CI: 1.00, 2.59, respectively) per 1-log unit increment. However, the unrestricted triglyceride score adjusted for HDL-C, LDL-C, and statin use gave an OR for CHD of 1.01 (95\% CI: 0.59, 1.75).

CONCLUSION: The genetic findings support a causal effect of triglycerides on CHD risk, but a causal role for HDL-C, though possible, remains less certain.

}, keywords = {Case-Control Studies, Cholesterol, HDL, Coronary Artery Disease, Female, Gene Frequency, Genotype, Genotyping Techniques, Humans, Male, Mendelian Randomization Analysis, Middle Aged, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Assessment, Triglycerides}, issn = {1522-9645}, doi = {10.1093/eurheartj/eht571}, author = {Holmes, Michael V and Asselbergs, Folkert W and Palmer, Tom M and Drenos, Fotios and Lanktree, Matthew B and Nelson, Christopher P and Dale, Caroline E and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Finan, Chris and Swerdlow, Daniel I and Tragante, Vinicius and van Iperen, Erik P A and Sivapalaratnam, Suthesh and Shah, Sonia and Elbers, Clara C and Shah, Tina and Engmann, Jorgen and Giambartolomei, Claudia and White, Jon and Zabaneh, Delilah and Sofat, Reecha and McLachlan, Stela and Doevendans, Pieter A and Balmforth, Anthony J and Hall, Alistair S and North, Kari E and Almoguera, Berta and Hoogeveen, Ron C and Cushman, Mary and Fornage, Myriam and Patel, Sanjay R and Redline, Susan and Siscovick, David S and Tsai, Michael Y and Karczewski, Konrad J and Hofker, Marten H and Verschuren, W Monique and Bots, Michiel L and van der Schouw, Yvonne T and Melander, Olle and Dominiczak, Anna F and Morris, Richard and Ben-Shlomo, Yoav and Price, Jackie and Kumari, Meena and Baumert, Jens and Peters, Annette and Thorand, Barbara and Koenig, Wolfgang and Gaunt, Tom R and Humphries, Steve E and Clarke, Robert and Watkins, Hugh and Farrall, Martin and Wilson, James G and Rich, Stephen S and de Bakker, Paul I W and Lange, Leslie A and Davey Smith, George and Reiner, Alex P and Talmud, Philippa J and Kivimaki, Mika and Lawlor, Debbie A and Dudbridge, Frank and Samani, Nilesh J and Keating, Brendan J and Hingorani, Aroon D and Casas, Juan P} } @article {6681, title = {Meta-analysis of 65,734 individuals identifies TSPAN15 and SLC44A2 as two susceptibility loci for venous thromboembolism.}, journal = {Am J Hum Genet}, volume = {96}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Apr 2}, pages = {532-42}, abstract = {

Venous thromboembolism (VTE), the third leading cause of cardiovascular mortality, is a complex thrombotic disorder with environmental and genetic determinants. Although several genetic variants have been found associated with VTE, they explain a minor proportion of VTE risk in cases. We undertook a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) to identify additional VTE susceptibility genes. Twelve GWASs totaling 7,507 VTE case subjects and 52,632 control subjects formed our discovery stage where 6,751,884 SNPs were tested for association with VTE. Nine loci reached the genome-wide significance level of 5~{\texttimes} 10(-8) including six already known to associate with VTE (ABO, F2, F5, F11, FGG, and PROCR) and three unsuspected loci. SNPs mapping to these latter were selected for replication in three independent case-control studies totaling 3,009 VTE-affected individuals and 2,586 control subjects. This strategy led to the identification and replication of two VTE-associated loci, TSPAN15 and SLC44A2, with lead risk alleles associated with odds ratio for disease of 1.31 (p = 1.67~{\texttimes} 10(-16)) and 1.21 (p = 2.75~{\texttimes} 10(-15)), respectively. The lead SNP at the TSPAN15 locus is the intronic rs78707713 and the lead SLC44A2 SNP is the non-synonymous rs2288904 previously shown to associate with transfusion-related acute lung injury. We further showed that these two variants did not associate with known hemostatic plasma markers. TSPAN15 and SLC44A2 do not belong to conventional pathways for thrombosis and have not been associated to other cardiovascular diseases nor related quantitative biomarkers. Our findings uncovered unexpected actors of VTE etiology and pave the way for novel mechanistic concepts of VTE pathophysiology.

}, keywords = {Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Humans, Membrane Glycoproteins, Membrane Transport Proteins, Odds Ratio, Tetraspanins, Venous Thromboembolism}, issn = {1537-6605}, doi = {10.1016/j.ajhg.2015.01.019}, author = {Germain, Marine and Chasman, Daniel I and de Haan, Hugoline and Tang, Weihong and Lindstr{\"o}m, Sara and Weng, Lu-Chen and de Andrade, Mariza and de Visser, Marieke C H and Wiggins, Kerri L and Suchon, Pierre and Saut, No{\'e}mie and Smadja, David M and Le Gal, Gr{\'e}goire and van Hylckama Vlieg, Astrid and Di Narzo, Antonio and Hao, Ke and Nelson, Christopher P and Rocanin-Arjo, Ares and Folkersen, Lasse and Monajemi, Ramin and Rose, Lynda M and Brody, Jennifer A and Slagboom, Eline and A{\"\i}ssi, Dylan and Gagnon, France and Deleuze, Jean-Francois and Deloukas, Panos and Tzourio, Christophe and Dartigues, Jean-Fran{\c c}ois and Berr, Claudine and Taylor, Kent D and Civelek, Mete and Eriksson, Per and Psaty, Bruce M and Houwing-Duitermaat, Jeanine and Goodall, Alison H and Cambien, Francois and Kraft, Peter and Amouyel, Philippe and Samani, Nilesh J and Basu, Saonli and Ridker, Paul M and Rosendaal, Frits R and Kabrhel, Christopher and Folsom, Aaron R and Heit, John and Reitsma, Pieter H and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and Smith, Nicholas L and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel} } @article {6812, title = {Meta-Analysis of Genome-Wide Association Studies Identifies Genetic Risk Factors for Stroke in African Americans.}, journal = {Stroke}, volume = {46}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Aug}, pages = {2063-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The majority of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of stroke have focused on European-ancestry populations; however, none has been conducted in African Americans, despite the disproportionately high burden of stroke in this population. The Consortium of Minority Population Genome-Wide Association Studies of Stroke (COMPASS) was established to identify stroke susceptibility loci in minority populations.

METHODS: Using METAL, we conducted meta-analyses of GWAS in 14 746 African Americans (1365 ischemic and 1592 total stroke cases) from COMPASS, and tested genetic variants with P<10(-6) for validation in METASTROKE, a consortium of ischemic stroke genetic studies in European-ancestry populations. We also evaluated stroke loci previously identified in European-ancestry populations.

RESULTS: The 15q21.3 locus linked with lipid levels and hypertension was associated with total stroke (rs4471613; P=3.9{\texttimes}10(-8)) in African Americans. Nominal associations (P<10(-6)) for total or ischemic stroke were observed for 18 variants in or near genes implicated in cell cycle/mRNA presplicing (PTPRG, CDC5L), platelet function (HPS4), blood-brain barrier permeability (CLDN17), immune response (ELTD1, WDFY4, and IL1F10-IL1RN), and histone modification (HDAC9). Two of these loci achieved nominal significance in METASTROKE: 5q35.2 (P=0.03), and 1p31.1 (P=0.018). Four of 7 previously reported ischemic stroke loci (PITX2, HDAC9, CDKN2A/CDKN2B, and ZFHX3) were nominally associated (P<0.05) with stroke in COMPASS.

CONCLUSIONS: We identified a novel genetic variant associated with total stroke in African Americans and found that ischemic stroke loci identified in European-ancestry populations may also be relevant for African Americans. Our findings support investigation of diverse populations to identify and characterize genetic risk factors, and the importance of shared genetic risk across populations.

}, keywords = {African Americans, Case-Control Studies, Cohort Studies, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors, Stroke}, issn = {1524-4628}, doi = {10.1161/STROKEAHA.115.009044}, author = {Carty, Cara L and Keene, Keith L and Cheng, Yu-Ching and Meschia, James F and Chen, Wei-Min and Nalls, Mike and Bis, Joshua C and Kittner, Steven J and Rich, Stephen S and Tajuddin, Salman and Zonderman, Alan B and Evans, Michele K and Langefeld, Carl D and Gottesman, Rebecca and Mosley, Thomas H and Shahar, Eyal and Woo, Daniel and Yaffe, Kristine and Liu, Yongmei and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Dichgans, Martin and Malik, Rainer and Longstreth, W T and Mitchell, Braxton D and Psaty, Bruce M and Kooperberg, Charles and Reiner, Alexander and Worrall, Bradford B and Fornage, Myriam} } @article {6797, title = {A Meta-analysis of the Association of Estimated GFR, Albuminuria, Age, Race, and Sex With Acute Kidney Injury.}, journal = {Am J Kidney Dis}, volume = {66}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Oct}, pages = {591-601}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a serious global public health problem. We aimed to quantify the risk of AKI associated with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), albuminuria (albumin-creatinine ratio [ACR]), age, sex, and race (African American and white).

STUDY DESIGN: Collaborative meta-analysis.

SETTING \& POPULATION: 8 general-population cohorts (1,285,049 participants) and 5 chronic kidney disease (CKD) cohorts (79,519 participants).

SELECTION CRITERIA FOR STUDIES: Available eGFR, ACR, and 50 or more AKI events.

PREDICTORS: Age, sex, race, eGFR, urine ACR, and interactions.

OUTCOME: Hospitalized with or for AKI, using Cox proportional hazards models to estimate HRs of AKI and random-effects meta-analysis to pool results.

RESULTS: 16,480 (1.3\%) general-population cohort participants had AKI over a mean follow-up of 4 years; 2,087 (2.6\%) CKD participants had AKI over a mean follow-up of 1 year. Lower eGFR and higher ACR were strongly associated with AKI. Compared with eGFR of 80mL/min/1.73m(2), the adjusted HR of AKI at eGFR of 45mL/min/1.73m(2) was 3.35 (95\% CI, 2.75-4.07). Compared with ACR of 5mg/g, the risk of AKI at ACR of 300mg/g was 2.73 (95\% CI, 2.18-3.43). Older age was associated with higher risk of AKI, but this effect was attenuated with lower eGFR or higher ACR. Male sex was associated with higher risk of AKI, with a slight attenuation in lower eGFR but not in higher ACR. African Americans had higher AKI risk at higher levels of eGFR and most levels of ACR.

LIMITATIONS: Only 2 general-population cohorts could contribute to analyses by race; AKI identified by diagnostic code.

CONCLUSIONS: Reduced eGFR and increased ACR are consistent strong risk factors for AKI, whereas associations of AKI with age, sex, and race may be weaker in more advanced stages of CKD.

}, keywords = {Acute Kidney Injury, Adolescent, Adult, African Americans, Age Distribution, Aged, Albuminuria, Continental Population Groups, European Continental Ancestry Group, Female, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Predictive Value of Tests, Prognosis, Severity of Illness Index, Sex Distribution, Young Adult}, issn = {1523-6838}, doi = {10.1053/j.ajkd.2015.02.337}, author = {Grams, Morgan E and Sang, Yingying and Ballew, Shoshana H and Gansevoort, Ron T and Kimm, Heejin and Kovesdy, Csaba P and Naimark, David and Oien, Cecilia and Smith, David H and Coresh, Josef and Sarnak, Mark J and Stengel, B{\'e}n{\'e}dicte and Tonelli, Marcello} } @article {6796, title = {A Meta-analysis of the Association of Estimated GFR, Albuminuria, Diabetes Mellitus, and Hypertension With Acute Kidney Injury.}, journal = {Am J Kidney Dis}, volume = {66}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Oct}, pages = {602-12}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus and hypertension are risk factors for acute kidney injury (AKI). Whether estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and urine albumin-creatinine ratio (ACR) remain risk factors for AKI in the presence and absence of these conditions is uncertain.

STUDY DESIGN: Meta-analysis of cohort studies.

SETTING \& POPULATION: 8 general-population (1,285,045 participants) and 5 chronic kidney disease (CKD; 79,519 participants) cohorts.

SELECTION CRITERIA FOR STUDIES: Cohorts participating in the CKD Prognosis Consortium.

PREDICTORS: Diabetes and hypertension status, eGFR by the 2009 CKD Epidemiology Collaboration creatinine equation, urine ACR, and interactions.

OUTCOME: Hospitalization with AKI, using Cox proportional hazards models to estimate HRs of AKI and random-effects meta-analysis to pool results.

RESULTS: During a mean follow-up of 4 years, there were 16,480 episodes of AKI in the general-population and 2,087 episodes in the CKD cohorts. Low eGFRs and high ACRs were associated with higher risks of AKI in individuals with or without diabetes and with or without hypertension. When compared to a common reference of eGFR of 80mL/min/1.73m(2) in nondiabetic patients, HRs for AKI were generally higher in diabetic patients at any level of eGFR. The same was true for diabetic patients at all levels of ACR compared with nondiabetic patients. The risk gradient for AKI with lower eGFRs was greater in those without diabetes than with diabetes, but similar with higher ACRs in those without versus with diabetes. Those with hypertension had a higher risk of AKI at eGFRs>60mL/min/1.73m(2) than those without hypertension. However, risk gradients for AKI with both lower eGFRs and higher ACRs were greater for those without than with hypertension.

LIMITATIONS: AKI identified by diagnostic code.

CONCLUSIONS: Lower eGFRs and higher ACRs are associated with higher risks of AKI among individuals with or without either diabetes or hypertension.

}, keywords = {Acute Kidney Injury, Adult, Aged, Comorbidity, Diabetes Mellitus, Disease Progression, Female, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Hypertension, Incidence, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Male, Middle Aged, Prognosis, Renal Insufficiency, Chronic}, issn = {1523-6838}, doi = {10.1053/j.ajkd.2015.02.338}, author = {James, Matthew T and Grams, Morgan E and Woodward, Mark and Elley, C Raina and Green, Jamie A and Wheeler, David C and de Jong, Paul and Gansevoort, Ron T and Levey, Andrew S and Warnock, David G and Sarnak, Mark J} } @article {6852, title = {Microvascular and Macrovascular Abnormalities and Cognitive and Physical Function in Older Adults: Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {63}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Sep}, pages = {1886-93}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate and compare the associations between microvascular and macrovascular abnormalities and cognitive and physical function

DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis of the Cardiovascular Health Study (1998-1999).

SETTING: Community.

PARTICIPANTS: Individuals with available data on three or more of five microvascular abnormalities (brain, retina, kidney) and three or more of six macrovascular abnormalities (brain, carotid artery, heart, peripheral artery) (N = 2,452; mean age 79.5).

MEASUREMENTS: Standardized composite scores derived from three cognitive tests (Modified Mini-Mental State Examination, Digit-Symbol Substitution Test, Trail-Making Test (TMT)) and three physical tests (gait speed, grip strength, 5-time sit to stand)

RESULTS: Participants with high microvascular and macrovascular burden had worse cognitive (mean score difference = -0.30, 95\% confidence interval (CI) = -0.37 to -0.24) and physical (mean score difference = -0.32, 95\% CI = -0.38 to -0.26) function than those with low microvascular and macrovascular burden. Individuals with high microvascular burden alone had similarly lower scores than those with high macrovascular burden alone (cognitive function: -0.16, 95\% CI = -0.24 to -0.08 vs -0.13, 95\% CI = -0.20 to -0.06; physical function: -0.15, 95\% CI = -0.22 to -0.08 vs -0.12, 95\% CI = -0.18 to -0.06). Psychomotor speed and working memory, assessed using the TMT, were only impaired in the presence of high microvascular burden. Of the 11 vascular abnormalities considered, white matter hyperintensity, cystatin C-based glomerular filtration rate, large brain infarct, and ankle-arm index were independently associated with cognitive and physical function.

CONCLUSION: Microvascular and macrovascular abnormalities assessed using noninvasive tests of the brain, kidney, and peripheral artery were independently associated with poor cognitive and physical function in older adults. Future research should evaluate the usefulness of these tests in prognostication.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cognition, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Vascular Malformations}, issn = {1532-5415}, doi = {10.1111/jgs.13594}, author = {Kim, Dae Hyun and Grodstein, Francine and Newman, Anne B and Chaves, Paulo H M and Odden, Michelle C and Klein, Ronald and Sarnak, Mark J and Lipsitz, Lewis A} } @article {6683, title = {Multiethnic genome-wide association study of cerebral white matter hyperintensities on MRI.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {8}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Apr}, pages = {398-409}, abstract = {

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

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

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

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Chromosomes, Human, Continental Population Groups, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Male, Meta-Analysis as Topic, Middle Aged, Models, Genetic, Stroke, White Matter}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.114.000858}, author = {Verhaaren, Benjamin F J and Debette, Stephanie and Bis, Joshua C and Smith, Jennifer A and Ikram, M Kamran and Adams, Hieab H and Beecham, Ashley H and Rajan, Kumar B and Lopez, Lorna M and Barral, Sandra and van Buchem, Mark A and van der Grond, Jeroen and Smith, Albert V and Hegenscheid, Katrin and Aggarwal, Neelum T and de Andrade, Mariza and Atkinson, Elizabeth J and Beekman, Marian and Beiser, Alexa S and Blanton, Susan H and Boerwinkle, Eric and Brickman, Adam M and Bryan, R Nick and Chauhan, Ganesh and Chen, Christopher P L H and Chouraki, Vincent and de Craen, Anton J M and Crivello, Fabrice and Deary, Ian J and Deelen, Joris and De Jager, Philip L and Dufouil, Carole and Elkind, Mitchell S V and Evans, Denis A and Freudenberger, Paul and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Gu{\dh}nason, Vilmundur and Habes, Mohamad and Heckbert, Susan R and Heiss, Gerardo and Hilal, Saima and Hofer, Edith and Hofman, Albert and Ibrahim-Verbaas, Carla A and Knopman, David S and Lewis, Cora E and Liao, Jiemin and Liewald, David C M and Luciano, Michelle and van der Lugt, Aad and Martinez, Oliver O and Mayeux, Richard and Mazoyer, Bernard and Nalls, Mike and Nauck, Matthias and Niessen, Wiro J and Oostra, Ben A and Psaty, Bruce M and Rice, Kenneth M and Rotter, Jerome I and von Sarnowski, Bettina and Schmidt, Helena and Schreiner, Pamela J and Schuur, Maaike and Sidney, Stephen S and Sigurdsson, Sigurdur and Slagboom, P Eline and Stott, David J M and van Swieten, John C and Teumer, Alexander and T{\"o}glhofer, Anna Maria and Traylor, Matthew and Trompet, Stella and Turner, Stephen T and Tzourio, Christophe and Uh, Hae-Won and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vernooij, Meike W and Wang, Jing J and Wong, Tien Y and Wardlaw, Joanna M and Windham, B Gwen and Wittfeld, Katharina and Wolf, Christiane and Wright, Clinton B and Yang, Qiong and Zhao, Wei and Zijdenbos, Alex and Jukema, J Wouter and Sacco, Ralph L and Kardia, Sharon L R and Amouyel, Philippe and Mosley, Thomas H and Longstreth, W T and DeCarli, Charles C and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Schmidt, Reinhold and Launer, Lenore J and Grabe, Hans J and Seshadri, Sudha S and Ikram, M Arfan and Fornage, Myriam} } @article {6596, title = {Multisystem physiologic impairments and changes in gait speed of older adults.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {70}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Mar}, pages = {319-24}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Slowed gait is an important health indicator in older adults but a single identifiable cause is often lacking. We assessed whether a summary index measuring impairments across multiple physiologic systems was associated with slowed gait in older individuals.

METHODS: Data from the Cardiovascular Health Study (n = 3,010) were used to assess associations between baseline physiologic index (measuring vasculature, brain, kidneys, lungs, and glucose metabolism; range 0-10 with 0-2 points/system and lower score indicating higher function) and annual gait speed (m/s) over 6 years. Participants with complete data on the physiologic index and at least two gait speed measures were included. Mean gait speed and 95\% confidence intervals (CI) by category of index were calculated using mixed effects models.

RESULTS: Those with scores of three or higher on the index had significantly slower gait speed at baseline compared to those with scores of 0-2 (7-10: mean speed = 0.83 m/s, 95\% CI: 0.80, 0.84; 0-2: mean speed = 1.01 m/s, 95\% CI: 0.99, 1.03). Those with higher indices also had faster decline in gait speed compared to those with lower scores after adjustment for demographic and health characteristics (7-10: change in speed = -0.020 m/s/year, 95\% CI: -0.024, -0.016; 0-2: change in speed= -0.010 m/s/year, 95\% CI: -0.014, -0.006).

CONCLUSIONS: Greater impairment across five organ systems was associated with slower gait speed and greater declines in gait speed over 6 years. Impairments accumulated over multiple physiologic systems may make older adults more vulnerable to slow gait speed.

}, keywords = {Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Brain, Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena, Cohort Studies, Female, Gait, Geriatric Assessment, Glucose, Health Status Indicators, Humans, Kidney, Lung, Male, Sensitivity and Specificity, Time Factors}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glu176}, author = {Rosso, Andrea L and Sanders, Jason L and Arnold, Alice M and Boudreau, Robert M and Hirsch, Calvin H and Carlson, Michelle C and Rosano, Caterina and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Newman, Anne B} } @article {7123, title = {Measures of Body Size and Composition and Risk of Incident Atrial Fibrillation in Older People: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, volume = {183}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jun 1}, pages = {998-1007}, abstract = {

Various anthropometric measures, including height, have been associated with atrial fibrillation (AF). This raises questions about the appropriateness of using ratio measures such as body mass index (BMI), which contains height squared in its denominator, in the evaluation of AF risk. Among older adults, the optimal anthropometric approach to risk stratification of AF remains uncertain. Anthropometric and bioelectrical impedance measures were obtained from 4,276 participants (mean age = 72.4 years) free of cardiovascular disease in the Cardiovascular Health Study. During follow-up (1989-2008), 1,050 cases of AF occurred. BMI showed a U-shaped association, whereas height, weight, waist circumference, hip circumference, fat mass, and fat-free mass were linearly related to incident AF. The strongest adjusted association occurred for height (per each 1-standard-deviation increment, hazard ratio = 1.38, 95\% confidence interval: 1.25, 1.51), which exceeded all other measures, including weight (hazard ratio = 1.21, 95\% confidence interval: 1.13, 1.29). Combined assessment of log-transformed weight and height showed regression coefficients that departed from the 1 to -2 ratio inherent in BMI, indicating a loss of predictive information. Risk estimates for AF tended to be stronger for hip circumference than for waist circumference and for fat-free mass than for fat mass, which was explained largely by height. These findings highlight the prominent role of body size and the inadequacy of BMI as determinants of AF in older adults.

}, issn = {1476-6256}, doi = {10.1093/aje/kwv278}, author = {Karas, Maria G and Yee, Laura M and Biggs, Mary L and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Ix, Joachim H and Zieman, Susan J and Siscovick, David S and Gottdiener, John S and Rosenberg, Michael A and Kronmal, Richard A and Heckbert, Susan R and Kizer, Jorge R} } @article {7264, title = {Meta-analysis identifies common and rare variants influencing blood pressure and overlapping with metabolic trait loci.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {48}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Oct}, pages = {1162-70}, abstract = {

Meta-analyses of association results for blood pressure using exome-centric single-variant and gene-based tests identified 31 new loci in a discovery stage among 146,562 individuals, with follow-up and meta-analysis in 180,726 additional individuals (total n = 327,288). These blood pressure-associated loci are enriched for known variants for cardiometabolic traits. Associations were also observed for the aggregation of rare and low-frequency missense variants in three genes, NPR1, DBH, and PTPMT1. In addition, blood pressure associations at 39 previously reported loci were confirmed. The identified variants implicate biological pathways related to cardiometabolic traits, vascular function, and development. Several new variants are inferred to have roles in transcription or as hubs in protein-protein interaction networks. Genetic risk scores constructed from the identified variants were strongly associated with coronary disease and myocardial infarction. This large collection of blood pressure-associated loci suggests new therapeutic strategies for hypertension, emphasizing a link with cardiometabolic risk.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3660}, author = {Liu, Chunyu and Kraja, Aldi T and Smith, Jennifer A and Brody, Jennifer A and Franceschini, Nora and Bis, Joshua C and Rice, Kenneth and Morrison, Alanna C and Lu, Yingchang and Weiss, Stefan and Guo, Xiuqing and Palmas, Walter and Martin, Lisa W and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Surendran, Praveen and Drenos, Fotios and Cook, James P and Auer, Paul L and Chu, Audrey Y and Giri, Ayush and Zhao, Wei and Jakobsdottir, Johanna and Lin, Li-An and Stafford, Jeanette M and Amin, Najaf and Mei, Hao and Yao, Jie and Voorman, Arend and Larson, Martin G and Grove, Megan L and Smith, Albert V and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Chen, Han and Huan, Tianxiao and Kosova, Gulum and Stitziel, Nathan O and Kathiresan, Sekar and Samani, Nilesh and Schunkert, Heribert and Deloukas, Panos and Li, Man and Fuchsberger, Christian and Pattaro, Cristian and Gorski, Mathias and Kooperberg, Charles and Papanicolaou, George J and Rossouw, Jacques E and Faul, Jessica D and Kardia, Sharon L R and Bouchard, Claude and Raffel, Leslie J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Franco, Oscar H and Vasan, Ramachandran S and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Taylor, Kent D and Liu, Kiang and Bottinger, Erwin P and Gottesman, Omri and Daw, E Warwick and Giulianini, Franco and Ganesh, Santhi and Salfati, Elias and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Felix, Stephan B and Rettig, Rainer and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Kim, Eric and Lee, Wen-Jane and Lee, I-Te and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Tsosie, Krystal S and Edwards, Digna R Velez and Liu, Yongmei and Correa, Adolfo and Weir, David R and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Ridker, Paul M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Reiner, Alexander P and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Borecki, Ingrid B and Edwards, Todd L and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Rotter, Jerome I and Psaty, Bruce M and Loos, Ruth J F and Fornage, Myriam and Ehret, Georg B and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Levy, Daniel and Chasman, Daniel I} } @article {6936, title = {A meta-analysis of 120 246 individuals identifies 18 new loci for fibrinogen concentration.}, journal = {Hum Mol Genet}, volume = {25}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jan 15}, pages = {358-70}, abstract = {

Genome-wide association studies have previously identified 23 genetic loci associated with circulating fibrinogen concentration. These studies used HapMap imputation and did not examine the X-chromosome. 1000 Genomes imputation provides better coverage of uncommon variants, and includes indels. We conducted a genome-wide association analysis of 34 studies imputed to the 1000 Genomes Project reference panel and including \~{}120 000 participants of European ancestry (95 806 participants with data on the X-chromosome). Approximately 10.7 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms and 1.2 million indels were examined. We identified 41 genome-wide significant fibrinogen loci; of which, 18 were newly identified. There were no genome-wide significant signals on the X-chromosome. The lead variants of five significant loci were indels. We further identified six additional independent signals, including three rare variants, at two previously characterized loci: FGB and IRF1. Together the 41 loci explain 3\% of the variance in plasma fibrinogen concentration.

}, issn = {1460-2083}, doi = {10.1093/hmg/ddv454}, author = {de Vries, Paul S and Chasman, Daniel I and Sabater-Lleal, Maria and Chen, Ming-Huei and Huffman, Jennifer E and Steri, Maristella and Tang, Weihong and Teumer, Alexander and Marioni, Riccardo E and Grossmann, Vera and Hottenga, Jouke J and Trompet, Stella and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Zhao, Jing Hua and Brody, Jennifer A and Kleber, Marcus E and Guo, Xiuqing and Wang, Jie Jin and Auer, Paul L and Attia, John R and Yanek, Lisa R and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Lahti, Jari and Venturini, Cristina and Tanaka, Toshiko and Bielak, Lawrence F and Joshi, Peter K and Rocanin-Arjo, Ares and Kolcic, Ivana and Navarro, Pau and Rose, Lynda M and Oldmeadow, Christopher and Riess, Helene and Mazur, Johanna and Basu, Saonli and Goel, Anuj and Yang, Qiong and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Willemsen, Gonneke and Rumley, Ann and Fiorillo, Edoardo and de Craen, Anton J M and Grotevendt, Anne and Scott, Robert and Taylor, Kent D and Delgado, Graciela E and Yao, Jie and Kifley, Annette and Kooperberg, Charles and Qayyum, Rehan and Lopez, Lorna M and Berentzen, Tina L and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Mangino, Massimo and Bandinelli, Stefania and Peyser, Patricia A and Wild, Sarah and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and Wright, Alan F and Marten, Jonathan and Zemunik, Tatijana and Morrison, Alanna C and Sennblad, Bengt and Tofler, Geoffrey and de Maat, Moniek P M and de Geus, Eco J C and Lowe, Gordon D and Zoledziewska, Magdalena and Sattar, Naveed and Binder, Harald and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Waldenberger, Melanie and Khaw, Kay-Tee and McKnight, Barbara and Huang, Jie and Jenny, Nancy S and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Qi, Lihong and Mcevoy, Mark G and Becker, Diane M and Starr, John M and Sarin, Antti-Pekka and Hysi, Pirro G and Hernandez, Dena G and Jhun, Min A and Campbell, Harry and Hamsten, Anders and Rivadeneira, Fernando and McArdle, Wendy L and Slagboom, P Eline and Zeller, Tanja and Koenig, Wolfgang and Psaty, Bruce M and Haritunians, Talin and Liu, Jingmin and Palotie, Aarno and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Stott, David J and Hofman, Albert and Franco, Oscar H and Polasek, Ozren and Rudan, Igor and Morange, Pierre-Emmanuel and Wilson, James F and Kardia, Sharon L R and Ferrucci, Luigi and Spector, Tim D and Eriksson, Johan G and Hansen, Torben and Deary, Ian J and Becker, Lewis C and Scott, Rodney J and Mitchell, Paul and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Wareham, Nick J and Peters, Annette and Greinacher, Andreas and Wild, Philipp S and Jukema, J Wouter and Boomsma, Dorret I and Hayward, Caroline and Cucca, Francesco and Tracy, Russell and Watkins, Hugh and Reiner, Alex P and Folsom, Aaron R and Ridker, Paul M and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Smith, Nicholas L and Strachan, David P and Dehghan, Abbas} } @article {7011, title = {Meta-analysis of 49 549 individuals imputed with the 1000 Genomes Project reveals an exonic damaging variant in ANGPTL4 determining fasting TG levels.}, journal = {J Med Genet}, volume = {53}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jul}, pages = {441-9}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: So far, more than 170 loci have been associated with circulating lipid levels through genome-wide association studies (GWAS). These associations are largely driven by common variants, their function is often not known, and many are likely to be markers for the causal variants. In this study we aimed to identify more new rare and low-frequency functional variants associated with circulating lipid levels.

METHODS: We used the 1000 Genomes Project as a reference panel for the imputations of GWAS data from \~{}60 000 individuals in the discovery stage and \~{}90 000 samples in the replication stage.

RESULTS: Our study resulted in the identification of five new associations with circulating lipid levels at four loci. All four loci are within genes that can be linked biologically to lipid metabolism. One of the variants, rs116843064, is a damaging missense variant within the ANGPTL4 gene.

CONCLUSIONS: This study illustrates that GWAS with high-scale imputation may still help us unravel the biological mechanism behind circulating lipid levels.

}, issn = {1468-6244}, doi = {10.1136/jmedgenet-2015-103439}, author = {van Leeuwen, Elisabeth M and Sabo, Aniko and Bis, Joshua C and Huffman, Jennifer E and Manichaikul, Ani and Smith, Albert V and Feitosa, Mary F and Demissie, Serkalem and Joshi, Peter K and Duan, Qing and Marten, Jonathan and van Klinken, Jan B and Surakka, Ida and Nolte, Ilja M and Zhang, Weihua and Mbarek, Hamdi and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Trompet, Stella and Verweij, Niek and Evangelou, Evangelos and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Tayo, Bamidele O and Deelen, Joris and van der Most, Peter J and van der Laan, Sander W and Arking, Dan E and Morrison, Alanna and Dehghan, Abbas and Franco, Oscar H and Hofman, Albert and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Sijbrands, Eric J and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Campbell, Archie and Hocking, Lynne J and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Brody, Jennifer A and Rice, Kenneth M and White, Charles C and Harris, Tamara and Isaacs, Aaron and Campbell, Harry and Lange, Leslie A and Rudan, Igor and Kolcic, Ivana and Navarro, Pau and Zemunik, Tatijana and Salomaa, Veikko and Kooner, Angad S and Kooner, Jaspal S and Lehne, Benjamin and Scott, William R and Tan, Sian-Tsung and de Geus, Eco J and Milaneschi, Yuri and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Willemsen, Gonneke and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Ford, Ian and Gansevoort, Ron T and Segura-Lepe, Marcelo P and Raitakari, Olli T and Viikari, Jorma S and Nikus, Kjell and Forrester, Terrence and McKenzie, Colin A and de Craen, Anton J M and de Ruijter, Hester M and Pasterkamp, Gerard and Snieder, Harold and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Slagboom, P Eline and Cooper, Richard S and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Elliott, Paul and van der Harst, Pim and Jukema, J Wouter and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Boomsma, Dorret I and Chambers, John C and Swertz, Morris and Ripatti, Samuli and Willems van Dijk, Ko and Vitart, Veronique and Polasek, Ozren and Hayward, Caroline and Wilson, James G and Wilson, James F and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Rich, Stephen S and Psaty, Bruce M and Borecki, Ingrid B and Boerwinkle, Eric and Rotter, Jerome I and Cupples, L Adrienne and van Duijn, Cornelia M} } @article {7358, title = {Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of HDL cholesterol response to statins.}, journal = {J Med Genet}, volume = {53}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Dec}, pages = {835-845}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: In addition to lowering low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), statin therapy also raises high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels. Inter-individual variation in HDL-C response to statins may be partially explained by genetic variation.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to identify variants with an effect on statin-induced high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) changes. The 123 most promising signals with p<1{\texttimes}10(-4) from the 16 769 statin-treated participants in the first analysis stage were followed up in an independent group of 10 951 statin-treated individuals, providing a total sample size of 27 720 individuals. The only associations of genome-wide significance (p<5{\texttimes}10(-8)) were between minor alleles at the CETP locus and greater HDL-C response to statin treatment.

CONCLUSIONS: Based on results from this study that included a relatively large sample size, we suggest that CETP may be the only detectable locus with common genetic variants that influence HDL-C response to statins substantially in individuals of European descent. Although CETP is known to be associated with HDL-C, we provide evidence that this pharmacogenetic effect is independent of its association with baseline HDL-C levels.

}, issn = {1468-6244}, doi = {10.1136/jmedgenet-2016-103966}, author = {Postmus, Iris and Warren, Helen R and Trompet, Stella and Arsenault, Benoit J and Avery, Christy L and Bis, Joshua C and Chasman, Daniel I and de Keyser, Catherine E and Deshmukh, Harshal A and Evans, Daniel S and Feng, QiPing and Li, Xiaohui and Smit, Roelof A J and Smith, Albert V and Sun, Fangui and Taylor, Kent D and Arnold, Alice M and Barnes, Michael R and Barratt, Bryan J and Betteridge, John and Boekholdt, S Matthijs and Boerwinkle, Eric and Buckley, Brendan M and Chen, Y-D Ida and de Craen, Anton J M and Cummings, Steven R and Denny, Joshua C and Dub{\'e}, Marie Pierre and Durrington, Paul N and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Ford, Ian and Guo, Xiuqing and Harris, Tamara B and Heckbert, Susan R and Hofman, Albert and Hovingh, G Kees and Kastelein, John J P and Launer, Leonore J and Liu, Ching-Ti and Liu, Yongmei and Lumley, Thomas and McKeigue, Paul M and Munroe, Patricia B and Neil, Andrew and Nickerson, Deborah A and Nyberg, Fredrik and O{\textquoteright}Brien, Eoin and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Post, Wendy and Poulter, Neil and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Rice, Kenneth and Rich, Stephen S and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Sattar, Naveed and Sever, Peter and Shaw-Hawkins, Sue and Shields, Denis C and Slagboom, P Eline and Smith, Nicholas L and Smith, Joshua D and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Stanton, Alice and Stott, David J and Stricker, Bruno H and St{\"u}rmer, Til and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Wei, Wei-Qi and Westendorp, Rudi G J and Whitsel, Eric A and Wiggins, Kerri L and Wilke, Russell A and Ballantyne, Christie M and Colhoun, Helen M and Cupples, L Adrienne and Franco, Oscar H and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hitman, Graham and Palmer, Colin N A and Psaty, Bruce M and Ridker, Paul M and Stafford, Jeanette M and Stein, Charles M and Tardif, Jean-Claude and Caulfield, Mark J and Jukema, J Wouter and Rotter, Jerome I and Krauss, Ronald M} } @article {7160, title = {Meta-analysis of rare and common exome chip variants identifies S1PR4 and other loci influencing blood cell traits.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {48}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Aug}, pages = {867-76}, abstract = {

Hematologic measures such as hematocrit and white blood cell (WBC) count are heritable and clinically relevant. We analyzed erythrocyte and WBC phenotypes in 52,531 individuals (37,775 of European ancestry, 11,589 African Americans, and 3,167 Hispanic Americans) from 16 population-based cohorts with Illumina HumanExome BeadChip genotypes. We then performed replication analyses of new discoveries in 18,018 European-American women and 5,261 Han Chinese. We identified and replicated four new erythrocyte trait-locus associations (CEP89, SHROOM3, FADS2, and APOE) and six new WBC loci for neutrophil count (S1PR4), monocyte count (BTBD8, NLRP12, and IL17RA), eosinophil count (IRF1), and total WBC count (MYB). The association of a rare missense variant in S1PR4 supports the role of sphingosine-1-phosphate signaling in leukocyte trafficking and circulating neutrophil counts. Loss-of-function experiments for S1pr4 in mouse and s1pr4 in zebrafish demonstrated phenotypes consistent with the association observed in humans and altered kinetics of neutrophil recruitment and resolution in response to tissue injury.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/ng.3607} } @article {7001, title = {Mortality After Bereavement: The Role of Cardiovascular Disease and Depression.}, journal = {Psychosom Med}, volume = {78}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Jul-Aug}, pages = {697-703}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: Late-life bereavement is associated with an increased risk of mortality. This study assesses the associations among bereavement, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and depressive symptoms on mortality in older men and women.

METHODS: We examined data from the Cardiovascular Health Study, a prospective population-based cohort study of older adults. We compared mortality in those who became bereaved from 1989 to 1999 (n = 593) to an age- and sex-matched sample of individuals who remained married (n = 593). Cox regression was used to examine the association between bereavement and 3-year all-cause mortality and whether or not the association differed by sex, presence of CVD, or postbereavement depressive symptoms.

RESULTS: One hundred ninety-nine (16.8\%) individuals died. There was no association of bereavement with mortality (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.98 [0.74-1.30]). However, there were significant interaction effects of bereavement with participant sex (p < .001) and CVD (p = .010). Bereavement decreased the risk of mortality in women (HR = 0.67 [0.46-0.97]) and increased the risk of mortality in men (HR = 1.77 [1.14-2.75]). Within sex, the association of bereavement with mortality differed according to CVD status. The reduced risk of mortality associated with bereavement in women was only observed in women with CVD, and the increased risk in men was only observed in men without CVD. High levels of depressive symptoms attenuated the relation between bereavement and mortality in men without CVD.

CONCLUSIONS: The relation between bereavement and mortality was different in men and women and varied by CVD status. Bereavement decreased mortality in women with CVD and increased mortality in men without CVD.

}, issn = {1534-7796}, doi = {10.1097/PSY.0000000000000317}, author = {Stahl, Sarah T and Arnold, Alice M and Chen, Jia-Yuh and Anderson, Stewart and Schulz, Richard} } @article {7257, title = {Multiethnic Exome-Wide Association Study of Subclinical Atherosclerosis.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, year = {2016}, month = {2016 Nov 21}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: -The burden of subclinical atherosclerosis in asymptomatic individuals is heritable and associated with elevated risk of developing clinical coronary heart disease (CHD). We sought to identify genetic variants in protein-coding regions associated with subclinical atherosclerosis and the risk of subsequent CHD.

METHODS AND RESULTS: -We studied a total of 25,109 European ancestry and African-American participants with coronary artery calcification (CAC) measured by cardiac computed tomography and 52,869 with common carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) measured by ultrasonography within the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium. Participants were genotyped for 247,870 DNA sequence variants (231,539 in exons) across the genome. A meta-analysis of exome-wide association studies was performed across cohorts for CAC and CIMT. APOB p.Arg3527Gln was associated with four-fold excess CAC (P = 3{\texttimes}10(-10)). The APOE ε2 allele (p.Arg176Cys) was associated with both 22.3\% reduced CAC (P = 1{\texttimes}10(-12)) and 1.4\% reduced CIMT (P = 4{\texttimes}10(-14)) in carriers compared with non-carriers. In secondary analyses conditioning on LDL cholesterol concentration, the ε2 protective association with CAC, although attenuated, remained strongly significant. Additionally, the presence of ε2 was associated with reduced risk for CHD (OR 0.77; P = 1{\texttimes}10(-11)).

CONCLUSIONS: -Exome-wide association meta-analysis demonstrates that protein-coding variants in APOB and APOE associate with subclinical atherosclerosis. APOE ε2 represents the first significant association for multiple subclinical atherosclerosis traits across multiple ethnicities as well as clinical CHD.

}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.116.001572}, author = {Natarajan, Pradeep and Bis, Joshua C and Bielak, Lawrence F and Cox, Amanda J and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Feitosa, Mary F and Franceschini, Nora and Guo, Xiuqing and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Isaacs, Aaron and Jhun, Min A and Kavousi, Maryam and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Marioni, Riccardo E and Schminke, Ulf and Stitziel, Nathan O and Tada, Hayato and van Setten, Jessica and Smith, Albert V and Vojinovic, Dina and Yanek, Lisa R and Yao, Jie and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Amin, Najaf and Baber, Usman and Borecki, Ingrid B and Carr, J Jeffrey and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Cupples, L Adrienne and de Jong, Pim A and de Koning, Harry and de Vos, Bob D and Demirkan, Ayse and Fuster, Valentin and Franco, Oscar H and Goodarzi, Mark O and Harris, Tamara B and Heckbert, Susan R and Heiss, Gerardo and Hoffmann, Udo and Hofman, Albert and I{\v s}gum, Ivana and Jukema, J Wouter and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kral, Brian G and Launer, Lenore J and Massaro, Joseph and Mehran, Roxana and Mitchell, Braxton D and Mosley, Thomas H and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Newman, Anne B and Nguyen, Khanh-Dung and North, Kari E and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Oudkerk, Matthijs and Pankow, James S and Peloso, Gina M and Post, Wendy and Province, Michael A and Raffield, Laura M and Raitakari, Olli T and Reilly, Dermot F and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Rosendaal, Frits and Sartori, Samantha and Taylor, Kent D and Teumer, Alexander and Trompet, Stella and Turner, Stephen T and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vaidya, Dhananjay and van der Lugt, Aad and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Wardlaw, Joanna M and Wassel, Christina L and Weiss, Stefan and Wojczynski, Mary K and Becker, Diane M and Becker, Lewis C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bowden, Donald W and Deary, Ian J and Dehghan, Abbas and Felix, Stephan B and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Mathias, Rasika and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Psaty, Bruce M and Rader, Daniel J and Rotter, Jerome I and Wilson, James G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Kathiresan, Sekar and Peyser, Patricia A and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J} } @article {7575, title = {Measures of chronic kidney disease and risk of incident peripheral artery disease: a collaborative meta-analysis of individual participant data.}, journal = {Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol}, volume = {5}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Sep}, pages = {718-728}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Some evidence suggests that chronic kidney disease is a risk factor for lower-extremity peripheral artery disease. We aimed to quantify the independent and joint associations of two measures of chronic kidney disease (estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR] and albuminuria) with the incidence of peripheral artery disease.

METHODS: In this collaborative meta-analysis of international cohorts included in the Chronic Kidney Disease Prognosis Consortium (baseline measurements obtained between 1972 and 2014) with baseline measurements of eGFR and albuminuria, at least 1000 participants (this criterion not applied to cohorts exclusively enrolling patients with chronic kidney disease), and at least 50 peripheral artery disease events, we analysed adult participants without peripheral artery disease at baseline at the individual patient level with Cox proportional hazards models to quantify associations of creatinine-based eGFR, urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR), and dipstick proteinuria with the incidence of peripheral artery disease (including hospitalisation with a diagnosis of peripheral artery disease, intermittent claudication, leg revascularisation, and leg amputation). We assessed discrimination improvement through c-statistics.

FINDINGS: We analysed 817 084 individuals without a history of peripheral artery disease at baseline from 21 cohorts. 18 261 cases of peripheral artery disease were recorded during follow-up across cohorts (median follow-up was 7{\textperiodcentered}4 years [IQR 5{\textperiodcentered}7-8{\textperiodcentered}9], range 2{\textperiodcentered}0-15{\textperiodcentered}8 years across cohorts). Both chronic kidney disease measures were independently associated with the incidence of peripheral artery disease. Compared with an eGFR of 95 mL/min per 1{\textperiodcentered}73 m2, adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for incident study-specific peripheral artery disease was 1{\textperiodcentered}22 (95\% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}14-1{\textperiodcentered}30) at an eGFR of 45 mL/min per 1{\textperiodcentered}73 m2 and 2{\textperiodcentered}06 (1{\textperiodcentered}70-2{\textperiodcentered}48) at an eGFR of 15 mL/min per 1{\textperiodcentered}73 m2. Compared with an ACR of 5 mg/g, the adjusted HR for incident study-specific peripheral artery disease was 1{\textperiodcentered}50 (1{\textperiodcentered}41-1{\textperiodcentered}59) at an ACR of 30 mg/g and 2{\textperiodcentered}28 (2{\textperiodcentered}12-2{\textperiodcentered}44) at an ACR of 300 mg/g. The adjusted HR at an ACR of 300 mg/g versus 5 mg/g was 3{\textperiodcentered}68 (95\% CI 3{\textperiodcentered}00-4{\textperiodcentered}52) for leg amputation. eGFR and albuminuria contributed multiplicatively (eg, adjusted HR 5{\textperiodcentered}76 [4{\textperiodcentered}90-6{\textperiodcentered}77] for incident peripheral artery disease and 10{\textperiodcentered}61 [5{\textperiodcentered}70-19{\textperiodcentered}77] for amputation in eGFR <30 mL/min per 1{\textperiodcentered}73 m2 plus ACR >=300 mg/g or dipstick proteinuria 2+ or higher vs eGFR >=90 mL/min per 1{\textperiodcentered}73 m2 plus ACR <10 mg/g or dipstick proteinuria negative). Both eGFR and ACR significantly improved peripheral artery disease risk discrimination beyond traditional predictors, with a substantial improvement prediction of amputation with ACR (difference in c-statistic 0{\textperiodcentered}058, 95\% CI 0{\textperiodcentered}045-0{\textperiodcentered}070). Patterns were consistent across clinical subgroups.

INTERPRETATION: Even mild-to-moderate chronic kidney disease conferred increased risk of incident peripheral artery disease, with a strong association between albuminuria and amputation. Clinical attention should be paid to the development of peripheral artery disease symptoms and signs in people with any stage of chronic kidney disease.

FUNDING: American Heart Association, US National Kidney Foundation, and US National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

}, issn = {2213-8595}, doi = {10.1016/S2213-8587(17)30183-3}, author = {Matsushita, Kunihiro and Ballew, Shoshana H and Coresh, Josef and Arima, Hisatomi and Arnl{\"o}v, Johan and Cirillo, Massimo and Ebert, Natalie and Hiramoto, Jade S and Kimm, Heejin and Shlipak, Michael G and Visseren, Frank L J and Gansevoort, Ron T and Kovesdy, Csaba P and Shalev, Varda and Woodward, Mark and Kronenberg, Florian} } @article {7450, title = {Multiancestry Study of Gene-Lifestyle Interactions for Cardiovascular Traits in 610 475 Individuals From 124 Cohorts: Design and Rationale.}, journal = {Circ Cardiovasc Genet}, volume = {10}, year = {2017}, month = {2017 Jun}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Several consortia have pursued genome-wide association studies for identifying novel genetic loci for blood pressure, lipids, hypertension, etc. They demonstrated the power of collaborative research through meta-analysis of study-specific results.

METHODS AND RESULTS: The Gene-Lifestyle Interactions Working Group was formed to facilitate the first large, concerted, multiancestry study to systematically evaluate gene-lifestyle interactions. In stage 1, genome-wide interaction analysis is performed in 53 cohorts with a total of 149 684 individuals from multiple ancestries. In stage 2 involving an additional 71 cohorts with 460 791 individuals from multiple ancestries, focused analysis is performed for a subset of the most promising variants from stage 1. In all, the study involves up to 610 475 individuals. Current focus is on cardiovascular traits including blood pressure and lipids, and lifestyle factors including smoking, alcohol, education (as a surrogate for socioeconomic status), physical activity, psychosocial variables, and sleep. The total sample sizes vary among projects because of missing data. Large-scale gene-lifestyle or more generally gene-environment interaction (G{\texttimes}E) meta-analysis studies can be cumbersome and challenging. This article describes the design and some of the approaches pursued in the interaction projects.

CONCLUSIONS: The Gene-Lifestyle Interactions Working Group provides an excellent framework for understanding the lifestyle context of genetic effects and to identify novel trait loci through analysis of interactions. An important and novel feature of our study is that the gene-lifestyle interaction (G{\texttimes}E) results may improve our knowledge about the underlying mechanisms for novel and already known trait loci.

}, issn = {1942-3268}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.116.001649}, author = {Rao, D C and Sung, Yun J and Winkler, Thomas W and Schwander, Karen and Borecki, Ingrid and Cupples, L Adrienne and Gauderman, W James and Rice, Kenneth and Munroe, Patricia B and Psaty, Bruce M} } @article {7775, title = {Meta-analysis across Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium provides evidence for an association of serum vitamin D with pulmonary function.}, journal = {Br J Nutr}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Sep 12}, pages = {1-12}, abstract = {

The role that vitamin D plays in pulmonary function remains uncertain. Epidemiological studies reported mixed findings for serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D)-pulmonary function association. We conducted the largest cross-sectional meta-analysis of the 25(OH)D-pulmonary function association to date, based on nine European ancestry (EA) cohorts (n 22 838) and five African ancestry (AA) cohorts (n 4290) in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology Consortium. Data were analysed using linear models by cohort and ancestry. Effect modification by smoking status (current/former/never) was tested. Results were combined using fixed-effects meta-analysis. Mean serum 25(OH)D was 68 (sd 29) nmol/l for EA and 49 (sd 21) nmol/l for AA. For each 1 nmol/l higher 25(OH)D, forced expiratory volume in the 1st second (FEV1) was higher by 1{\textperiodcentered}1 ml in EA (95 \% CI 0{\textperiodcentered}9, 1{\textperiodcentered}3; P<0{\textperiodcentered}0001) and 1{\textperiodcentered}8 ml (95 \% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}1, 2{\textperiodcentered}5; P<0{\textperiodcentered}0001) in AA (P race difference=0{\textperiodcentered}06), and forced vital capacity (FVC) was higher by 1{\textperiodcentered}3 ml in EA (95 \% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}0, 1{\textperiodcentered}6; P<0{\textperiodcentered}0001) and 1{\textperiodcentered}5 ml (95 \% CI 0{\textperiodcentered}8, 2{\textperiodcentered}3; P=0{\textperiodcentered}0001) in AA (P race difference=0{\textperiodcentered}56). Among EA, the 25(OH)D-FVC association was stronger in smokers: per 1 nmol/l higher 25(OH)D, FVC was higher by 1{\textperiodcentered}7 ml (95 \% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}1, 2{\textperiodcentered}3) for current smokers and 1{\textperiodcentered}7 ml (95 \% CI 1{\textperiodcentered}2, 2{\textperiodcentered}1) for former smokers, compared with 0{\textperiodcentered}8 ml (95 \% CI 0{\textperiodcentered}4, 1{\textperiodcentered}2) for never smokers. In summary, the 25(OH)D associations with FEV1 and FVC were positive in both ancestries. In EA, a stronger association was observed for smokers compared with never smokers, which supports the importance of vitamin D in vulnerable populations.

}, issn = {1475-2662}, doi = {10.1017/S0007114518002180}, author = {Xu, Jiayi and Bartz, Traci M and Chittoor, Geetha and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Manichaikul, Ani W and Sun, Fangui and Terzikhan, Natalie and Zhou, Xia and Booth, Sarah L and Brusselle, Guy G and de Boer, Ian H and Fornage, Myriam and Frazier-Wood, Alexis C and Graff, Mariaelisa and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Hofman, Albert and Hou, Ruixue and Houston, Denise K and Jacobs, David R and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Latourelle, Jeanne and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Lutsey, Pamela L and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George and Oelsner, Elizabeth C and Pankow, James S and Psaty, Bruce M and Rohde, Rebecca R and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Smith, Lewis J and Stricker, Bruno H and Voruganti, V Saroja and Wang, Thomas J and Zillikens, M Carola and Barr, R Graham and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Gharib, Sina A and Lahousse, Lies and London, Stephanie J and North, Kari E and Smith, Albert V and Steffen, Lyn M and Hancock, Dana B and Cassano, Patricia A} } @article {7795, title = {Meta-analysis of exome array data identifies six novel genetic loci for lung function.}, journal = {Wellcome Open Res}, volume = {3}, year = {2018}, month = {2018}, pages = {4}, abstract = {

Over 90 regions of the genome have been associated with lung function to date, many of which have also been implicated in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We carried out meta-analyses of exome array data and three lung function measures: forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV ), forced vital capacity (FVC) and the ratio of FEV to FVC (FEV /FVC). These analyses by the SpiroMeta and CHARGE consortia included 60,749 individuals of European ancestry from 23 studies, and 7,721 individuals of African Ancestry from 5 studies in the discovery stage, with follow-up in up to 111,556 independent individuals. We identified significant (P<2{\textperiodcentered}8x10 ) associations with six SNPs: a nonsynonymous variant in , which is predicted to be damaging, three intronic SNPs ( and ) and two intergenic SNPs near to and Expression quantitative trait loci analyses found evidence for regulation of gene expression at three signals and implicated several genes, including and . Further interrogation of these loci could provide greater understanding of the determinants of lung function and pulmonary disease.

}, issn = {2398-502X}, doi = {10.12688/wellcomeopenres.12583.3}, author = {Jackson, Victoria E and Latourelle, Jeanne C and Wain, Louise V and Smith, Albert V and Grove, Megan L and Bartz, Traci M and Obeidat, Ma{\textquoteright}en and Province, Michael A and Gao, Wei and Qaiser, Beenish and Porteous, David J and Cassano, Patricia A and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Grarup, Niels and Li, Jin and Altmaier, Elisabeth and Marten, Jonathan and Harris, Sarah E and Manichaikul, Ani and Pottinger, Tess D and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Lind-Thomsen, Allan and Mahajan, Anubha and Lahousse, Lies and Imboden, Medea and Teumer, Alexander and Prins, Bram and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Franceschini, Nora and Sitlani, Colleen M and Brody, Jennifer A and Boss{\'e}, Yohan and Timens, Wim and Kraja, Aldi and Loukola, Anu and Tang, Wenbo and Liu, Yongmei and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Justesen, Johanne M and Linneberg, Allan and Lange, Leslie A and Rawal, Rajesh and Karrasch, Stefan and Huffman, Jennifer E and Smith, Blair H and Davies, Gail and Burkart, Kristin M and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Bonten, Tobias N and Enroth, Stefan and Lind, Lars and Brusselle, Guy G and Kumar, Ashish and Stubbe, Beate and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Wyss, Annah B and Psaty, Bruce M and Heckbert, Susan R and Hao, Ke and Rantanen, Taina and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Lohman, Kurt and Skaaby, Tea and Pisinger, Charlotta and Hansen, Torben and Schulz, Holger and Polasek, Ozren and Campbell, Archie and Starr, John M and Rich, Stephen S and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Johansson, Asa and Ingelsson, Erik and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Weiss, Stefan and Raitakari, Olli T and Gudnason, Vilmundur and North, Kari E and Gharib, Sina A and Sin, Don D and Taylor, Kent D and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Kaprio, Jaakko and Harris, Tamara B and Pederson, Oluf and Vestergaard, Henrik and Wilson, James G and Strauch, Konstantin and Hayward, Caroline and Kerr, Shona and Deary, Ian J and Barr, R Graham and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Gyllensten, Ulf and Morris, Andrew P and Ikram, M Arfan and Probst-Hensch, Nicole and Gl{\"a}ser, Sven and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Strachan, David P and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Morrison, Alanna C and Hall, Ian P and Tobin, Martin D and London, Stephanie J} } @article {8539, title = {Metabolic Clusters and Outcomes in Older Adults: The Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {J Am Geriatr Soc}, volume = {66}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 02}, pages = {289-296}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Few studies have the requisite phenotypic information to define metabolic patterns that may inform our understanding of the pathophysiology and consequences of diabetes in older adults. We sought to characterize clusters of older adults on the basis of shared metabolic features.

DESIGN: Population-based prospective cohort study.

SETTING: Four U.S. Cardiovascular Health Study field centers.

PARTICIPANTS: Individuals aged 65 and older taking no glucose-lowering agents (N~=~2,231).

MEASUREMENTS: K-means cluster analysis of 11 metabolic parameters (fasting and postload serum glucose and plasma insulin, fasting C-peptide, body mass index, C-reactive protein (CRP), estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), albuminuria, carboxymethyl lysine (an advanced glycation end-product), procollagen III N-terminal propeptide (a fibrotic marker)) and their associations with incident cardiovascular disease, diabetes, disability, and mortality over 8 to 14.5~years of follow-up and with measures of subclinical cardiovascular disease.

RESULTS: A 6-cluster solution provided robust differentiation into distinct, identifiable clusters. Cluster A (n~=~739) had the lowest glucose and insulin and highest eGFR and the lowest rates of all outcomes. Cluster B (n~=~419) had high glucose and insulin and intermediate rates of most outcomes. Cluster C (n~=~118) had the highest insulin. Cluster D (n~=~129) had the highest glucose with much lower insulin. Cluster E (n~=~314) had the lowest eGFR and highest albuminuria. Cluster F (n~=~512) had the highest CRP. Rates of CVD, mortality, and subclinical atherosclerosis were highest in clusters C, D, and E and were similar to rates in participants with treated diabetes. Incidence of disability was highest in Cluster C.

CONCLUSION: Clustering according to metabolic parameters identifies distinct phenotypes that are strongly associated with clinical and functional outcomes, even at advanced age.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Blood Glucose, C-Reactive Protein, Cardiovascular Diseases, Diabetes Mellitus, Female, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Incidence, Insulin, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, United States}, issn = {1532-5415}, doi = {10.1111/jgs.15205}, author = {Mukamal, Kenneth J and Siscovick, David S and de Boer, Ian H and Ix, Joachim H and Kizer, Jorge R and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Tracy, Russell P and Boyko, Edward J and Kahn, Steven E and Arnold, Alice M} } @article {7917, title = {Modifiable Predictors of Ventricular Ectopy in the Community.}, journal = {J Am Heart Assoc}, volume = {7}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Nov 20}, pages = {e010078}, abstract = {

Background Premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) predict heart failure and death. Data regarding modifiable risk factors for PVCs are scarce. Methods and Results We studied 1424 Cardiovascular Health Study participants randomly assigned to 24-hour Holter monitoring. Demographics, comorbidities, habits, and echocardiographic measurements were examined as predictors of PVC frequency and, among 845 participants, change in PVC frequency 5~years later. Participants exhibited a median of 0.6 (interquartile range, 0.1-7.1) PVCs per hour. Of the more directly modifiable characteristics and after multivariable adjustment, every SD increase in systolic blood pressure was associated with 9\% more PVCs (95\% confidence interval [CI], 2\%-17\%; P=0.01), regularly performing no or low-intensity exercise compared with more physical activity was associated with ≈15\% more PVCs (95\% CI, 3-25\%; P=0.02), and those with a history of smoking exhibited an average of 18\% more PVCs (95\% CI, 3-36\%; P=0.02) than did never smokers. After 5~years, PVC frequency increased from a median of 0.5 (IQR, 0.1-4.7) to 1.2 (IQR, 0.1-13.8) per hour ( P<0.0001). Directly modifiable predictors of 5-year increase in PVCs, described as the odds per each quintile increase in PVCs, included increased diastolic blood pressure (odds ratio per SD increase, 1.16; 95\% CI, 1.02-1.31; P=0.02) and a history of smoking (OR, 1.31; 95\% CI, 1.02-1.68; P=0.04). Conclusions Enhancing physical activity, smoking cessation, and aggressive control of blood pressure may represent fruitful strategies to mitigate PVC frequency and PVC-associated adverse outcomes.

}, issn = {2047-9980}, doi = {10.1161/JAHA.118.010078}, author = {Kerola, Tuomas and Dewland, Thomas A and Vittinghoff, Eric and Heckbert, Susan R and Stein, Phyllis K and Marcus, Gregory M} } @article {7558, title = {Multiancestry association study identifies new asthma risk loci that colocalize with immune-cell enhancer marks.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {50}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Jan}, pages = {42-53}, abstract = {

We examined common variation in asthma risk by conducting a meta-analysis of worldwide asthma genome-wide association studies (23,948 asthma cases, 118,538 controls) of individuals from ethnically diverse populations. We identified five new asthma loci, found two new associations at two known asthma loci, established asthma associations at two loci previously implicated in the comorbidity of asthma plus hay fever, and confirmed nine known loci. Investigation of pleiotropy showed large overlaps in genetic variants with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The enrichment in enhancer marks at asthma risk loci, especially in immune cells, suggested a major role of these loci in the regulation of immunologically related mechanisms.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-017-0014-7}, author = {Demenais, Florence and Margaritte-Jeannin, Patricia and Barnes, Kathleen C and Cookson, William O C and Altm{\"u}ller, Janine and Ang, Wei and Barr, R Graham and Beaty, Terri H and Becker, Allan B and Beilby, John and Bisgaard, Hans and Bjornsdottir, Unnur Steina and Bleecker, Eugene and B{\o}nnelykke, Klaus and Boomsma, Dorret I and Bouzigon, Emmanuelle and Brightling, Christopher E and Brossard, Myriam and Brusselle, Guy G and Burchard, Esteban and Burkart, Kristin M and Bush, Andrew and Chan-Yeung, Moira and Chung, Kian Fan and Couto Alves, Alexessander and Curtin, John A and Custovic, Adnan and Daley, Denise and de Jongste, Johan C and Del-Rio-Navarro, Blanca E and Donohue, Kathleen M and Duijts, Liesbeth and Eng, Celeste and Eriksson, Johan G and Farrall, Martin and Fedorova, Yuliya and Feenstra, Bjarke and Ferreira, Manuel A and Freidin, Maxim B and Gajdos, Zofia and Gauderman, Jim and Gehring, Ulrike and Geller, Frank and Genuneit, Jon and Gharib, Sina A and Gilliland, Frank and Granell, Raquel and Graves, Penelope E and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Haahtela, Tari and Heckbert, Susan R and Heederik, Dick and Heinrich, Joachim and Heli{\"o}vaara, Markku and Henderson, John and Himes, Blanca E and Hirose, Hiroshi and Hirschhorn, Joel N and Hofman, Albert and Holt, Patrick and Hottenga, Jouke and Hudson, Thomas J and Hui, Jennie and Imboden, Medea and Ivanov, Vladimir and Jaddoe, Vincent W V and James, Alan and Janson, Christer and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Jarvis, Deborah and Jones, Graham and Jonsdottir, Ingileif and Jousilahti, Pekka and Kabesch, Michael and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kantor, David B and Karunas, Alexandra S and Khusnutdinova, Elza and Koppelman, Gerard H and Kozyrskyj, Anita L and Kreiner, Eskil and Kubo, Michiaki and Kumar, Rajesh and Kumar, Ashish and Kuokkanen, Mikko and Lahousse, Lies and Laitinen, Tarja and Laprise, Catherine and Lathrop, Mark and Lau, Susanne and Lee, Young-Ae and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Letort, S{\'e}bastien and Levin, Albert M and Li, Guo and Liang, Liming and Loehr, Laura R and London, Stephanie J and Loth, Daan W and Manichaikul, Ani and Marenholz, Ingo and Martinez, Fernando J and Matheson, Melanie C and Mathias, Rasika A and Matsumoto, Kenji and Mbarek, Hamdi and McArdle, Wendy L and Melbye, Mads and Mel{\'e}n, Erik and Meyers, Deborah and Michel, Sven and Mohamdi, Hamida and Musk, Arthur W and Myers, Rachel A and Nieuwenhuis, Maartje A E and Noguchi, Emiko and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George T and Ogorodova, Ludmila M and Palmer, Cameron D and Palotie, Aarno and Park, Julie E and Pennell, Craig E and Pershagen, G{\"o}ran and Polonikov, Alexey and Postma, Dirkje S and Probst-Hensch, Nicole and Puzyrev, Valery P and Raby, Benjamin A and Raitakari, Olli T and Ramasamy, Adaikalavan and Rich, Stephen S and Robertson, Colin F and Romieu, Isabelle and Salam, Muhammad T and Salomaa, Veikko and Schl{\"u}nssen, Vivi and Scott, Robert and Selivanova, Polina A and Sigsgaard, Torben and Simpson, Angela and Siroux, Val{\'e}rie and Smith, Lewis J and Solodilova, Maria and Standl, Marie and Stefansson, Kari and Strachan, David P and Stricker, Bruno H and Takahashi, Atsushi and Thompson, Philip J and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tiesler, Carla M T and Torgerson, Dara G and Tsunoda, Tatsuhiko and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van der Valk, Ralf J P and Vaysse, Amaury and Vedantam, Sailaja and von Berg, Andrea and von Mutius, Erika and Vonk, Judith M and Waage, Johannes and Wareham, Nick J and Weiss, Scott T and White, Wendy B and Wickman, Magnus and Widen, Elisabeth and Willemsen, Gonneke and Williams, L Keoki and Wouters, Inge M and Yang, James J and Zhao, Jing Hua and Moffatt, Miriam F and Ober, Carole and Nicolae, Dan L} } @article {7683, title = {Multiancestry genome-wide association study of 520,000 subjects identifies 32 loci associated with stroke and stroke subtypes.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {50}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Apr}, pages = {524-537}, abstract = {

Stroke has multiple etiologies, but the underlying genes and pathways are largely unknown. We conducted a multiancestry genome-wide-association meta-analysis in 521,612 individuals (67,162 cases and 454,450 controls) and discovered 22 new stroke risk loci, bringing the total to 32. We further found shared genetic variation with related vascular traits, including blood pressure, cardiac traits, and venous thromboembolism, at individual loci (n = 18), and~using genetic risk scores and linkage-disequilibrium-score regression. Several loci exhibited distinct association and pleiotropy patterns for etiological stroke subtypes. Eleven new susceptibility loci indicate mechanisms not previously implicated in stroke pathophysiology, with prioritization of risk variants and genes accomplished through bioinformatics analyses using extensive functional datasets. Stroke risk loci were significantly enriched in drug targets for antithrombotic therapy.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-018-0058-3}, author = {Malik, Rainer and Chauhan, Ganesh and Traylor, Matthew and Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan and Okada, Yukinori and Mishra, Aniket and Rutten-Jacobs, Loes and Giese, Anne-Katrin and van der Laan, Sander W and Gretarsdottir, Solveig and Anderson, Christopher D and Chong, Michael and Adams, Hieab H H and Ago, Tetsuro and Almgren, Peter and Amouyel, Philippe and Ay, Hakan and Bartz, Traci M and Benavente, Oscar R and Bevan, Steve and Boncoraglio, Giorgio B and Brown, Robert D and Butterworth, Adam S and Carrera, Caty and Carty, Cara L and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Wei-Min and Cole, John W and Correa, Adolfo and Cotlarciuc, Ioana and Cruchaga, Carlos and Danesh, John and de Bakker, Paul I W and DeStefano, Anita L and den Hoed, Marcel and Duan, Qing and Engelter, Stefan T and Falcone, Guido J and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Grewal, Raji P and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gustafsson, Stefan and Haessler, Jeffrey and Harris, Tamara B and Hassan, Ahamad and Havulinna, Aki S and Heckbert, Susan R and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Howard, George and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Hyacinth, Hyacinth I and Ikram, M Arfan and Ingelsson, Erik and Irvin, Marguerite R and Jian, Xueqiu and Jimenez-Conde, Jordi and Johnson, Julie A and Jukema, J Wouter and Kanai, Masahiro and Keene, Keith L and Kissela, Brett M and Kleindorfer, Dawn O and Kooperberg, Charles and Kubo, Michiaki and Lange, Leslie A and Langefeld, Carl D and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lee, Jin-Moo and Lemmens, Robin and Leys, Didier and Lewis, Cathryn M and Lin, Wei-Yu and Lindgren, Arne G and Lorentzen, Erik and Magnusson, Patrik K and Maguire, Jane and Manichaikul, Ani and McArdle, Patrick F and Meschia, James F and Mitchell, Braxton D and Mosley, Thomas H and Nalls, Michael A and Ninomiya, Toshiharu and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Martin J and Psaty, Bruce M and Pulit, Sara L and Rannikmae, Kristiina and Reiner, Alexander P and Rexrode, Kathryn M and Rice, Kenneth and Rich, Stephen S and Ridker, Paul M and Rost, Natalia S and Rothwell, Peter M and Rotter, Jerome I and Rundek, Tatjana and Sacco, Ralph L and Sakaue, Saori and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Salomaa, Veikko and Sapkota, Bishwa R and Schmidt, Reinhold and Schmidt, Carsten O and Schminke, Ulf and Sharma, Pankaj and Slowik, Agnieszka and Sudlow, Cathie L M and Tanislav, Christian and Tatlisumak, Turgut and Taylor, Kent D and Thijs, Vincent N S and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tiedt, Steffen and Trompet, Stella and Tzourio, Christophe and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Walters, Matthew and Wareham, Nicholas J and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Wilson, James G and Wiggins, Kerri L and Yang, Qiong and Yusuf, Salim and Bis, Joshua C and Pastinen, Tomi and Ruusalepp, Arno and Schadt, Eric E and Koplev, Simon and Bj{\"o}rkegren, Johan L M and Codoni, Veronica and Civelek, Mete and Smith, Nicholas L and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David A and Christophersen, Ingrid E and Roselli, Carolina and Lubitz, Steven A and Ellinor, Patrick T and Tai, E Shyong and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kato, Norihiro and He, Jiang and van der Harst, Pim and Elliott, Paul and Chambers, John C and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Johnson, Andrew D and Sanghera, Dharambir K and Melander, Olle and Jern, Christina and Strbian, Daniel and Fernandez-Cadenas, Israel and Longstreth, W T and Rolfs, Arndt and Hata, Jun and Woo, Daniel and Rosand, Jonathan and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Hopewell, Jemma C and Saleheen, Danish and Stefansson, Kari and Worrall, Bradford B and Kittner, Steven J and Seshadri, Sudha and Fornage, Myriam and Markus, Hugh S and Howson, Joanna M M and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Debette, Stephanie and Dichgans, Martin and Malik, Rainer and Chauhan, Ganesh and Traylor, Matthew and Sargurupremraj, Muralidharan and Okada, Yukinori and Mishra, Aniket and Rutten-Jacobs, Loes and Giese, Anne-Katrin and van der Laan, Sander W and Gretarsdottir, Solveig and Anderson, Christopher D and Chong, Michael and Adams, Hieab H H and Ago, Tetsuro and Almgren, Peter and Amouyel, Philippe and Ay, Hakan and Bartz, Traci M and Benavente, Oscar R and Bevan, Steve and Boncoraglio, Giorgio B and Brown, Robert D and Butterworth, Adam S and Carrera, Caty and Carty, Cara L and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Wei-Min and Cole, John W and Correa, Adolfo and Cotlarciuc, Ioana and Cruchaga, Carlos and Danesh, John and de Bakker, Paul I W and DeStefano, Anita L and Hoed, Marcel den and Duan, Qing and Engelter, Stefan T and Falcone, Guido J and Gottesman, Rebecca F and Grewal, Raji P and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Gustafsson, Stefan and Haessler, Jeffrey and Harris, Tamara B and Hassan, Ahamad and Havulinna, Aki S and Heckbert, Susan R and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Howard, George and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Hyacinth, Hyacinth I and Ikram, M Arfan and Ingelsson, Erik and Irvin, Marguerite R and Jian, Xueqiu and Jimenez-Conde, Jordi and Johnson, Julie A and Jukema, J Wouter and Kanai, Masahiro and Keene, Keith L and Kissela, Brett M and Kleindorfer, Dawn O and Kooperberg, Charles and Kubo, Michiaki and Lange, Leslie A and Langefeld, Carl D and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lee, Jin-Moo and Lemmens, Robin and Leys, Didier and Lewis, Cathryn M and Lin, Wei-Yu and Lindgren, Arne G and Lorentzen, Erik and Magnusson, Patrik K and Maguire, Jane and Manichaikul, Ani and McArdle, Patrick F and Meschia, James F and Mitchell, Braxton D and Mosley, Thomas H and Nalls, Michael A and Ninomiya, Toshiharu and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Martin J and Psaty, Bruce M and Pulit, Sara L and Rannikmae, Kristiina and Reiner, Alexander P and Rexrode, Kathryn M and Rice, Kenneth and Rich, Stephen S and Ridker, Paul M and Rost, Natalia S and Rothwell, Peter M and Rotter, Jerome I and Rundek, Tatjana and Sacco, Ralph L and Sakaue, Saori and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Salomaa, Veikko and Sapkota, Bishwa R and Schmidt, Reinhold and Schmidt, Carsten O and Schminke, Ulf and Sharma, Pankaj and Slowik, Agnieszka and Sudlow, Cathie L M and Tanislav, Christian and Tatlisumak, Turgut and Taylor, Kent D and Thijs, Vincent N S and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tiedt, Steffen and Trompet, Stella and Tzourio, Christophe and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Walters, Matthew and Wareham, Nicholas J and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Wilson, James G and Wiggins, Kerri L and Yang, Qiong and Yusuf, Salim and Amin, Najaf and Aparicio, Hugo S and Arnett, Donna K and Attia, John and Beiser, Alexa S and Berr, Claudine and Buring, Julie E and Bustamante, Mariana and Caso, Valeria and Cheng, Yu-Ching and Choi, Seung Hoan and Chowhan, Ayesha and Cullell, Natalia and Dartigues, Jean-Fran{\c c}ois and Delavaran, Hossein and Delgado, Pilar and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Engstr{\"o}m, Gunnar and Ford, Ian and Gurpreet, Wander S and Hamsten, Anders and Heitsch, Laura and Hozawa, Atsushi and Ibanez, Laura and Ilinca, Andreea and Ingelsson, Martin and Iwasaki, Motoki and Jackson, Rebecca D and Jood, Katarina and Jousilahti, Pekka and Kaffashian, Sara and Kalra, Lalit and Kamouchi, Masahiro and Kitazono, Takanari and Kjartansson, Olafur and Kloss, Manja and Koudstaal, Peter J and Krupinski, Jerzy and Labovitz, Daniel L and Laurie, Cathy C and Levi, Christopher R and Li, Linxin and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Lioutas, Vasileios and Liu, Yong Mei and Lopez, Oscar L and Makoto, Hirata and Martinez-Majander, Nicolas and Matsuda, Koichi and Minegishi, Naoko and Montaner, Joan and Morris, Andrew P and Mui{\~n}o, Elena and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Norrving, Bo and Ogishima, Soichi and Parati, Eugenio A and Peddareddygari, Leema Reddy and Pedersen, Nancy L and Pera, Joanna and Perola, Markus and Pezzini, Alessandro and Pileggi, Silvana and Rabionet, Raquel and Riba-Llena, Iolanda and Ribas{\'e}s, Marta and Romero, Jose R and Roquer, Jaume and Rudd, Anthony G and Sarin, Antti-Pekka and Sarju, Ralhan and Sarnowski, Chloe and Sasaki, Makoto and Satizabal, Claudia L and Satoh, Mamoru and Sattar, Naveed and Sawada, Norie and Sibolt, Gerli and Sigurdsson, {\'A}sgeir and Smith, Albert and Sobue, Kenji and Soriano-T{\'a}rraga, Carolina and Stanne, Tara and Stine, O Colin and Stott, David J and Strauch, Konstantin and Takai, Takako and Tanaka, Hideo and Tanno, Kozo and Teumer, Alexander and Tomppo, Liisa and Torres-Aguila, Nuria P and Touze, Emmanuel and Tsugane, Shoichiro and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Valdimarsson, Einar M and van der Lee, Sven J and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Wakai, Kenji and Weir, David and Williams, Stephen R and Wolfe, Charles D A and Wong, Quenna and Xu, Huichun and Yamaji, Taiki and Sanghera, Dharambir K and Melander, Olle and Jern, Christina and Strbian, Daniel and Fernandez-Cadenas, Israel and Longstreth, W T and Rolfs, Arndt and Hata, Jun and Woo, Daniel and Rosand, Jonathan and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Hopewell, Jemma C and Saleheen, Danish and Stefansson, Kari and Worrall, Bradford B and Kittner, Steven J and Seshadri, Sudha and Fornage, Myriam and Markus, Hugh S and Howson, Joanna M M and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Debette, Stephanie and Dichgans, Martin} } @article {7811, title = {Multi-ethnic genome-wide association study for atrial fibrillation.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {50}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Sep}, pages = {1225-1233}, abstract = {

Atrial fibrillation (AF) affects more than 33 million individuals worldwide and has a complex heritability. We conducted the largest meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for AF to date, consisting of more than half a million individuals, including 65,446 with AF. In total, we identified 97 loci significantly associated with AF, including 67 that were novel in a combined-ancestry analysis, and 3 that were novel in a European-specific analysis. We sought to identify AF-associated genes at the GWAS loci by performing RNA-sequencing and expression quantitative trait locus analyses in 101 left atrial samples, the most relevant tissue for AF. We also performed transcriptome-wide analyses that identified 57 AF-associated genes, 42 of which overlap with GWAS loci. The identified loci implicate genes enriched within cardiac developmental, electrophysiological, contractile and structural pathways. These results extend our understanding of the biological pathways underlying AF and may facilitate the development of therapeutics for AF.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-018-0133-9}, author = {Roselli, Carolina and Chaffin, Mark D and Weng, Lu-Chen and Aeschbacher, Stefanie and Ahlberg, Gustav and Albert, Christine M and Almgren, Peter and Alonso, Alvaro and Anderson, Christopher D and Aragam, Krishna G and Arking, Dan E and Barnard, John and Bartz, Traci M and Benjamin, Emelia J and Bihlmeyer, Nathan A and Bis, Joshua C and Bloom, Heather L and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bottinger, Erwin B and Brody, Jennifer A and Calkins, Hugh and Campbell, Archie and Cappola, Thomas P and Carlquist, John and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Lin Y and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Choi, Eue-Keun and Choi, Seung Hoan and Christophersen, Ingrid E and Chung, Mina K and Cole, John W and Conen, David and Cook, James and Crijns, Harry J and Cutler, Michael J and Damrauer, Scott M and Daniels, Brian R and Darbar, Dawood and Delgado, Graciela and Denny, Joshua C and Dichgans, Martin and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Dudink, Elton A and Dudley, Samuel C and Esa, Nada and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Eskola, Markku and Fatkin, Diane and Felix, Stephan B and Ford, Ian and Franco, Oscar H and Geelhoed, Bastiaan and Grewal, Raji P and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Guo, Xiuqing and Gupta, Namrata and Gustafsson, Stefan and Gutmann, Rebecca and Hamsten, Anders and Harris, Tamara B and Hayward, Caroline and Heckbert, Susan R and Hernesniemi, Jussi and Hocking, Lynne J and Hofman, Albert and Horimoto, Andrea R V R and Huang, Jie and Huang, Paul L and Huffman, Jennifer and Ingelsson, Erik and Ipek, Esra Gucuk and Ito, Kaoru and Jimenez-Conde, Jordi and Johnson, Renee and Jukema, J Wouter and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kane, John P and Kastrati, Adnan and Kathiresan, Sekar and Katschnig-Winter, Petra and Kavousi, Maryam and Kessler, Thorsten and Kietselaer, Bas L and Kirchhof, Paulus and Kleber, Marcus E and Knight, Stacey and Krieger, Jose E and Kubo, Michiaki and Launer, Lenore J and Laurikka, Jari and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Leineweber, Kirsten and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Li, Man and Lim, Hong Euy and Lin, Henry J and Lin, Honghuang and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Lokki, Marja-Liisa and London, Barry and Loos, Ruth J F and Low, Siew-Kee and Lu, Yingchang and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Macfarlane, Peter W and Magnusson, Patrik K and Mahajan, Anubha and Malik, Rainer and Mansur, Alfredo J and Marcus, Gregory M and Margolin, Lauren and Margulies, Kenneth B and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and McManus, David D and Melander, Olle and Mohanty, Sanghamitra and Montgomery, Jay A and Morley, Michael P and Morris, Andrew P and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Natale, Andrea and Nazarian, Saman and Neumann, Benjamin and Newton-Cheh, Christopher and Niemeijer, Maartje N and Nikus, Kjell and Nilsson, Peter and Noordam, Raymond and Oellers, Heidi and Olesen, Morten S and Orho-Melander, Marju and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Pak, Hui-Nam and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Pedersen, Nancy L and Pera, Joanna and Pereira, Alexandre and Porteous, David and Psaty, Bruce M and Pulit, Sara L and Pullinger, Clive R and Rader, Daniel J and Refsgaard, Lena and Ribas{\'e}s, Marta and Ridker, Paul M and Rienstra, Michiel and Risch, Lorenz and Roden, Dan M and Rosand, Jonathan and Rosenberg, Michael A and Rost, Natalia and Rotter, Jerome I and Saba, Samir and Sandhu, Roopinder K and Schnabel, Renate B and Schramm, Katharina and Schunkert, Heribert and Schurman, Claudia and Scott, Stuart A and Sepp{\"a}l{\"a}, Ilkka and Shaffer, Christian and Shah, Svati and Shalaby, Alaa A and Shim, Jaemin and Shoemaker, M Benjamin and Siland, Joylene E and Sinisalo, Juha and Sinner, Moritz F and Slowik, Agnieszka and Smith, Albert V and Smith, Blair H and Smith, J Gustav and Smith, Jonathan D and Smith, Nicholas L and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Stricker, Bruno H and Sun, Albert and Sun, Han and Svendsen, Jesper H and Tanaka, Toshihiro and Tanriverdi, Kahraman and Taylor, Kent D and Teder-Laving, Maris and Teumer, Alexander and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and Trompet, Stella and Tucker, Nathan R and Tveit, Arnljot and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van der Harst, Pim and Van Gelder, Isabelle C and Van Wagoner, David R and Verweij, Niek and Vlachopoulou, Efthymia and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Wang, Biqi and Weeke, Peter E and Weijs, Bob and Weiss, Raul and Weiss, Stefan and Wells, Quinn S and Wiggins, Kerri L and Wong, Jorge A and Woo, Daniel and Worrall, Bradford B and Yang, Pil-Sung and Yao, Jie and Yoneda, Zachary T and Zeller, Tanja and Zeng, Lingyao and Lubitz, Steven A and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Ellinor, Patrick T} } @article {7819, title = {Multiethnic meta-analysis identifies ancestry-specific and cross-ancestry loci for pulmonary function.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {9}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Jul 30}, pages = {2976}, abstract = {

Nearly 100 loci have been identified for pulmonary function, almost exclusively in studies of European ancestry populations. We extend previous research by meta-analyzing genome-wide association studies of 1000 Genomes imputed variants in relation to pulmonary function in a multiethnic population of 90,715 individuals of European (N = 60,552), African (N = 8429), Asian (N = 9959), and Hispanic/Latino (N = 11,775) ethnicities. We identify over 50 additional loci at genome-wide significance in ancestry-specific or multiethnic meta-analyses. Using recent fine-mapping methods incorporating functional annotation, gene expression, and differences in linkage disequilibrium between ethnicities, we further shed light on potential causal variants and genes at known and newly identified loci. Several of the novel genes encode proteins with predicted or established drug targets, including KCNK2 and CDK12. Our study highlights the utility of multiethnic and integrative genomics approaches to extend existing knowledge of the genetics of lung function and clinical relevance of implicated loci.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-05369-0}, author = {Wyss, Annah B and Sofer, Tamar and Lee, Mi Kyeong and Terzikhan, Natalie and Nguyen, Jennifer N and Lahousse, Lies and Latourelle, Jeanne C and Smith, Albert Vernon and Bartz, Traci M and Feitosa, Mary F and Gao, Wei and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Tang, Wenbo and Oldmeadow, Christopher and Duan, Qing and de Jong, Kim and Wojczynski, Mary K and Wang, Xin-Qun and Noordam, Raymond and Hartwig, Fernando Pires and Jackson, Victoria E and Wang, Tianyuan and Obeidat, Ma{\textquoteright}en and Hobbs, Brian D and Huan, Tianxiao and Gui, Hongsheng and Parker, Margaret M and Hu, Donglei and Mogil, Lauren S and Kichaev, Gleb and Jin, Jianping and Graff, Mariaelisa and Harris, Tamara B and Kalhan, Ravi and Heckbert, Susan R and Paternoster, Lavinia and Burkart, Kristin M and Liu, Yongmei and Holliday, Elizabeth G and Wilson, James G and Vonk, Judith M and Sanders, Jason L and Barr, R Graham and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Menezes, Ana Maria Baptista and Adams, Hieab H H and van den Berge, Maarten and Joehanes, Roby and Levin, Albert M and Liberto, Jennifer and Launer, Lenore J and Morrison, Alanna C and Sitlani, Colleen M and Celed{\'o}n, Juan C and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Scott, Rodney J and Christensen, Kaare and Rotter, Jerome I and Bonten, Tobias N and Wehrmeister, Fernando C{\'e}sar and Boss{\'e}, Yohan and Xiao, Shujie and Oh, Sam and Franceschini, Nora and Brody, Jennifer A and Kaplan, Robert C and Lohman, Kurt and McEvoy, Mark and Province, Michael A and Rosendaal, Frits R and Taylor, Kent D and Nickle, David C and Williams, L Keoki and Burchard, Esteban G and Wheeler, Heather E and Sin, Don D and Gudnason, Vilmundur and North, Kari E and Fornage, Myriam and Psaty, Bruce M and Myers, Richard H and O{\textquoteright}Connor, George and Hansen, Torben and Laurie, Cathy C and Cassano, Patricia A and Sung, Joohon and Kim, Woo Jin and Attia, John R and Lange, Leslie and Boezen, H Marike and Thyagarajan, Bharat and Rich, Stephen S and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Horta, Bernardo Lessa and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Im, Hae Kyung and Cho, Michael H and Brusselle, Guy G and Gharib, Sina A and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Manichaikul, Ani and London, Stephanie J} } @article {7675, title = {Multiethnic Meta-Analysis Identifies RAI1 as a Possible Obstructive Sleep Apnea-related Quantitative Trait Locus in Men.}, journal = {Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol}, volume = {58}, year = {2018}, month = {2018 Mar}, pages = {391-401}, abstract = {

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common heritable disorder displaying marked sexual dimorphism in disease prevalence and progression. Previous genetic association studies have identified a few genetic loci associated with OSA and related quantitative traits, but they have only focused on single ethnic groups, and a large proportion of the heritability remains unexplained. The apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) is a commonly used quantitative measure characterizing OSA severity. Because OSA differs by sex, and the pathophysiology of obstructive events differ in rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM (NREM) sleep, we hypothesized that additional genetic association signals would be identified by analyzing the NREM/REM-specific AHI and by conducting sex-specific analyses in multiethnic samples. We performed genome-wide association tests for up to 19,733 participants of African, Asian, European, and Hispanic/Latino American ancestry in 7 studies. We identified rs12936587 on chromosome 17 as a possible quantitative trait locus for NREM AHI in men (N = 6,737; P = 1.7 {\texttimes} 10) but not in women (P = 0.77). The association with NREM AHI was replicated in a physiological research study (N = 67; P = 0.047). This locus overlapping the RAI1 gene and encompassing genes PEMT1, SREBF1, and RASD1 was previously reported to be associated with coronary artery disease, lipid metabolism, and implicated in Potocki-Lupski syndrome and Smith-Magenis syndrome, which are characterized by abnormal sleep phenotypes. We also identified gene-by-sex interactions in suggestive association regions, suggesting that genetic variants for AHI appear to vary by sex, consistent with the clinical observations of strong sexual dimorphism.

}, issn = {1535-4989}, doi = {10.1165/rcmb.2017-0237OC}, author = {Chen, Han and Cade, Brian E and Gleason, Kevin J and Bjonnes, Andrew C and Stilp, Adrienne M and Sofer, Tamar and Conomos, Matthew P and Ancoli-Israel, Sonia and Arens, Raanan and Azarbarzin, Ali and Bell, Graeme I and Below, Jennifer E and Chun, Sung and Evans, Daniel S and Ewert, Ralf and Frazier-Wood, Alexis C and Gharib, Sina A and Haba-Rubio, Jos{\'e} and Hagen, Erika W and Heinzer, Raphael and Hillman, David R and Johnson, W Craig and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Lane, Jacqueline M and Larkin, Emma K and Lee, Seung Ku and Liang, Jingjing and Loredo, Jose S and Mukherjee, Sutapa and Palmer, Lyle J and Papanicolaou, George J and Penzel, Thomas and Peppard, Paul E and Post, Wendy S and Ramos, Alberto R and Rice, Ken and Rotter, Jerome I and Sands, Scott A and Shah, Neomi A and Shin, Chol and Stone, Katie L and Stubbe, Beate and Sul, Jae Hoon and Tafti, Mehdi and Taylor, Kent D and Teumer, Alexander and Thornton, Timothy A and Tranah, Gregory J and Wang, Chaolong and Wang, Heming and Warby, Simon C and Wellman, D Andrew and Zee, Phyllis C and Hanis, Craig L and Laurie, Cathy C and Gottlieb, Daniel J and Patel, Sanjay R and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Sunyaev, Shamil R and Saxena, Richa and Lin, Xihong and Redline, Susan} } @article {8050, title = {Mendelian randomization evaluation of causal effects of fibrinogen on incident coronary heart disease.}, journal = {PLoS One}, volume = {14}, year = {2019}, month = {2019}, pages = {e0216222}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Fibrinogen is an essential hemostatic factor and cardiovascular disease risk factor. Early attempts at evaluating the causal effect of fibrinogen on coronary heart disease (CHD) and myocardial infraction (MI) using Mendelian randomization (MR) used single variant approaches, and did not take advantage of recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) or multi-variant, pleiotropy robust MR methodologies.

METHODS AND FINDINGS: We evaluated evidence for a causal effect of fibrinogen on both CHD and MI using MR. We used both an allele score approach and pleiotropy robust MR models. The allele score was composed of 38 fibrinogen-associated variants from recent GWAS. Initial analyses using the allele score used a meta-analysis of 11 European-ancestry prospective cohorts, free of CHD and MI at baseline, to examine incidence CHD and MI. We also applied 2 sample MR methods with data from a prevalent CHD and MI GWAS. Results are given in terms of the hazard ratio (HR) or odds ratio (OR), depending on the study design, and associated 95\% confidence interval (CI). In single variant analyses no causal effect of fibrinogen on CHD or MI was observed. In multi-variant analyses using incidence CHD cases and the allele score approach, the estimated causal effect (HR) of a 1 g/L higher fibrinogen concentration was 1.62 (CI = 1.12, 2.36) when using incident cases and the allele score approach. In 2 sample MR analyses that accounted for pleiotropy, the causal estimate (OR) was reduced to 1.18 (CI = 0.98, 1.42) and 1.09 (CI = 0.89, 1.33) in the 2 most precise (smallest CI) models, out of 4 models evaluated. In the 2 sample MR analyses for MI, there was only very weak evidence of a causal effect in only 1 out of 4 models.

CONCLUSIONS: A small causal effect of fibrinogen on CHD is observed using multi-variant MR approaches which account for pleiotropy, but not single variant MR approaches. Taken together, results indicate that even with large sample sizes and multi-variant approaches MR analyses still cannot exclude the null when estimating the causal effect of fibrinogen on CHD, but that any potential causal effect is likely to be much smaller than observed in epidemiological studies.

}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0216222}, author = {Ward-Caviness, Cavin K and de Vries, Paul S and Wiggins, Kerri L and Huffman, Jennifer E and Yanek, Lisa R and Bielak, Lawrence F and Giulianini, Franco and Guo, Xiuqing and Kleber, Marcus E and Kacprowski, Tim and Gro{\ss}, Stefan and Petersman, Astrid and Davey Smith, George and Hartwig, Fernando P and Bowden, Jack and Hemani, Gibran and M{\"u}ller-Nuraysid, Martina and Strauch, Konstantin and Koenig, Wolfgang and Waldenberger, Melanie and Meitinger, Thomas and Pankratz, Nathan and Boerwinkle, Eric and Tang, Weihong and Fu, Yi-Ping and Johnson, Andrew D and Song, Ci and de Maat, Moniek P M and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Franco, Oscar H and Brody, Jennifer A and McKnight, Barbara and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Psaty, Bruce M and Mathias, Rasika A and Becker, Diane M and Peyser, Patricia A and Smith, Jennifer A and Bielinski, Suzette J and Ridker, Paul M and Taylor, Kent D and Yao, Jie and Tracy, Russell and Delgado, Graciela and Trompet, Stella and Sattar, Naveed and Jukema, J Wouter and Becker, Lewis C and Kardia, Sharon L R and Rotter, Jerome I and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Chasman, Daniel I and Dehghan, Abbas and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Smith, Nicholas L and Peters, Annette and Morrison, Alanna C} } @article {9310, title = {{A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies multiple longevity genes}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {10}, year = {2019}, month = {Aug}, pages = {3669}, abstract = {2) shows the opposite. Moreover, rs7676745, located near GPR78, associates with lower odds of surviving to the 90th percentile age. Gene-level association analysis reveals a role for tissue-specific expression of multiple genes in longevity. Finally, genetic correlation of the longevity GWA results with that of several disease-related phenotypes points to a shared genetic architecture between health and longevity.}, author = {Deelen, J. and Evans, D. S. and Arking, D. E. and Tesi, N. and Nygaard, M. and Liu, X. and Wojczynski, M. K. and Biggs, M. L. and van der Spek, A. and Atzmon, G. and Ware, E. B. and Sarnowski, C. and Smith, A. V. and {\"a}, I. and Cordell, H. J. and Dose, J. and Amin, N. and Arnold, A. M. and Ayers, K. L. and Barzilai, N. and Becker, E. J. and Beekman, M. and {\'e}, H. and Christensen, K. and Christiansen, L. and Collerton, J. C. and Cubaynes, S. and Cummings, S. R. and Davies, K. and Debrabant, B. and Deleuze, J. F. and Duncan, R. and Faul, J. D. and Franceschi, C. and Galan, P. and Gudnason, V. and Harris, T. B. and Huisman, M. and Hurme, M. A. and Jagger, C. and Jansen, I. and {\"a}, M. and nen, M. and Karasik, D. and Kardia, S. L. R. and Kingston, A. and Kirkwood, T. B. L. and Launer, L. J. and ki, T. and Lieb, W. and inen, L. P. and Martin-Ruiz, C. and Min, J. and Nebel, A. and Newman, A. B. and Nie, C. and Nohr, E. A. and Orwoll, E. S. and Perls, T. T. and Province, M. A. and Psaty, B. M. and Raitakari, O. T. and Reinders, M. J. T. and Robine, J. M. and Rotter, J. I. and Sebastiani, P. and Smith, J. and rensen, T. I. A. and Taylor, K. D. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and van der Flier, W. and van der Lee, S. J. and van Duijn, C. M. and van Heemst, D. and Vaupel, J. W. and Weir, D. and Ye, K. and Zeng, Y. and Zheng, W. and Holstege, H. and Kiel, D. P. and Lunetta, K. L. and Slagboom, P. E. and Murabito, J. M.} } @article {8510, title = {{A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies multiple longevity genes}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {10}, year = {2019}, month = {08}, pages = {3669}, abstract = {Human longevity is heritable, but genome-wide association (GWA) studies have had limited success. Here, we perform two meta-analyses of GWA studies of a rigorous longevity phenotype definition including 11,262/3484 cases surviving at or beyond the age corresponding to the 90th/99th survival percentile, respectively, and 25,483 controls whose age at death or at last contact was at or below the age corresponding to the 60th survival percentile. Consistent with previous reports, rs429358 (apolipoprotein E (ApoE) {\^I}{\textmu}4) is associated with lower odds of surviving to the 90th and 99th percentile age, while rs7412 (ApoE {\^I}{\textmu}2) shows the opposite. Moreover, rs7676745, located near GPR78, associates with lower odds of surviving to the 90th percentile age. Gene-level association analysis reveals a role for tissue-specific expression of multiple genes in longevity. Finally, genetic correlation of the longevity GWA results with that of several disease-related phenotypes points to a shared genetic architecture between health and longevity.}, author = {Deelen, J. and Evans, D. S. and Arking, D. E. and Tesi, N. and Nygaard, M. and Liu, X. and Wojczynski, M. K. and Biggs, M. L. and van der Spek, A. and Atzmon, G. and Ware, E. B. and Sarnowski, C. and Smith, A. V. and Sepp?l?, I. and Cordell, H. J. and Dose, J. and Amin, N. and Arnold, A. M. and Ayers, K. L. and Barzilai, N. and Becker, E. J. and Beekman, M. and Blanch?, H. and Christensen, K. and Christiansen, L. and Collerton, J. C. and Cubaynes, S. and Cummings, S. R. and Davies, K. and Debrabant, B. and Deleuze, J. F. and Duncan, R. and Faul, J. D. and Franceschi, C. and Galan, P. and Gudnason, V. and Harris, T. B. and Huisman, M. and Hurme, M. A. and Jagger, C. and Jansen, I. and Jylh?, M. and K?h?nen, M. and Karasik, D. and Kardia, S. L. R. and Kingston, A. and Kirkwood, T. B. L. and Launer, L. J. and Lehtim?ki, T. and Lieb, W. and Lyytik?inen, L. P. and Martin-Ruiz, C. and Min, J. and Nebel, A. and Newman, A. B. and Nie, C. and Nohr, E. A. and Orwoll, E. S. and Perls, T. T. and Province, M. A. and Psaty, B. M. and Raitakari, O. T. and Reinders, M. J. T. and Robine, J. M. and Rotter, J. I. and Sebastiani, P. and Smith, J. and S?rensen, T. I. A. and Taylor, K. D. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and van der Flier, W. and van der Lee, S. J. and van Duijn, C. M. and van Heemst, D. and Vaupel, J. W. and Weir, D. and Ye, K. and Zeng, Y. and Zheng, W. and Holstege, H. and Kiel, D. P. and Lunetta, K. L. and Slagboom, P. E. and Murabito, J. M.} } @article {8517, title = {{Meta-Analysis of Genomewide Association Studies Reveals Genetic Variants for Hip Bone Geometry}, journal = {J Bone Miner Res}, volume = {34}, year = {2019}, month = {07}, pages = {1284{\textendash}1296}, abstract = {Hip geometry is an important predictor of fracture. We performed a meta-analysis of GWAS studies in adults to identify genetic variants that are associated with proximal femur geometry phenotypes. We analyzed four phenotypes: (i) femoral neck length; (ii) neck-shaft angle; (iii) femoral neck width, and (iv) femoral neck section modulus, estimated from DXA scans using algorithms of hip structure analysis. In the Discovery stage, 10 cohort studies were included in the fixed-effect meta-analysis, with up to 18,719 men and women ages 16 to 93 years. Association analyses were performed with {\^a}{\textasciicircum}{\textonequarter}2.5 million polymorphisms under an additive model adjusted for age, body mass index, and height. Replication analyses of meta-GWAS significant loci (at adjusted genomewide significance [GWS], threshold p {\^a}{\textperthousand}¤ 2.6 {\~A}{\textemdash} 10-8 ) were performed in seven additional cohorts in silico. We looked up SNPs associated in our analysis, for association with height, bone mineral density (BMD), and fracture. In meta-analysis (combined Discovery and Replication stages), GWS associations were found at 5p15 (IRX1 and ADAMTS16); 5q35 near FGFR4; at 12p11 (in CCDC91); 11q13 (near LRP5 and PPP6R3 (rs7102273)). Several hip geometry signals overlapped with BMD, including LRP5 (chr. 11). Chr. 11 SNP rs7102273 was associated with any-type fracture (p = 7.5 {\~A}{\textemdash} 10-5 ). We used bone transcriptome data and discovered several significant eQTLs, including rs7102273 and PPP6R3 expression (p = 0.0007), and rs6556301 (intergenic, chr.5 near FGFR4) and PDLIM7 expression (p = 0.005). In conclusion, we found associations between several genes and hip geometry measures that explained 12\% to 22\% of heritability at different sites. The results provide a defined set of genes related to biological pathways relevant to BMD and etiology of bone fragility. {\^A}{\textcopyright} 2019 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.}, author = {Hsu, Y. H. and Estrada, K. and Evangelou, E. and Ackert-Bicknell, C. and Akesson, K. and Beck, T. and Brown, S. J. and Capellini, T. and Carbone, L. and Cauley, J. and Cheung, C. L. and Cummings, S. R. and Czerwinski, S. and Demissie, S. and Econs, M. and Evans, D. and Farber, C. and Gautvik, K. and Harris, T. and Kammerer, C. and Kemp, J. and Koller, D. L. and Kung, A. and Lawlor, D. and Lee, M. and Lorentzon, M. and McGuigan, F. and Medina-Gomez, C. and Mitchell, B. and Newman, A. and Nielson, C. and Ohlsson, C. and Peacock, M. and Reppe, S. and Richards, J. B. and Robbins, J. and Sigurdsson, G. and Spector, T. D. and Stefansson, K. and Streeten, E. and Styrkarsdottir, U. and Tobias, J. and Trajanoska, K. and Uitterlinden, A. and Vandenput, L. and Wilson, S. G. and Yerges-Armstrong, L. and Young, M. and Zillikens, M. C. and Rivadeneira, F. and Kiel, D. P. and Karasik, D.} } @article {7970, title = {Multi-Ancestry Genome-Wide Association Study of Lipid Levels Incorporating Gene-Alcohol Interactions.}, journal = {Am J Epidemiol}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Jan 29}, abstract = {

An individual{\textquoteright}s lipid profile is influenced by genetic variants and alcohol consumption, but the contribution of interactions between these exposures has not been studied. We therefore incorporated gene-alcohol interactions into a multi-ancestry genome-wide association study of levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides. We included 45 studies in Stage 1 (genome-wide discovery) and 66 studies in Stage 2 (focused follow-up), for a total of 394,584 individuals from five ancestry groups. Genetic main and interaction effects were jointly assessed by a 2 degrees of freedom (DF) test, and a 1 DF test was used to assess the interaction effects alone. Variants at 495 loci were at least suggestively associated (P~<~1~{\texttimes}~10-6) with lipid levels in Stage 1 and were evaluated in Stage 2, followed by combined analyses of Stage 1 and Stage 2. In the combined analysis of Stage 1 and Stage 2, 147 independent loci were associated with lipid levels at P~<~5~{\texttimes}~10-8 using 2 DF tests, of which 18 were novel. No genome-wide significant associations were found testing the interaction effect alone. The novel loci included several genes (PCSK5, VEGFB, and A1CF) with a putative role in lipid metabolism based on existing evidence from cellular and experimental models.

}, issn = {1476-6256}, doi = {10.1093/aje/kwz005}, author = {de Vries, Paul S and Brown, Michael R and Bentley, Amy R and Sung, Yun J and Winkler, Thomas W and Ntalla, Ioanna and Schwander, Karen and Kraja, Aldi T and Guo, Xiuqing and Franceschini, Nora and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Sim, Xueling and Vojinovic, Dina and Huffman, Jennifer E and Musani, Solomon K and Li, Changwei and Feitosa, Mary F and Richard, Melissa A and Noordam, Raymond and Aschard, Hugues and Bartz, Traci M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Deng, Xuan and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Lohman, Kurt K and Manning, Alisa K and Rankinen, Tuomo and Smith, Albert V and Tajuddin, Salman M and Evangelou, Evangelos and Graff, Mariaelisa and Alver, Maris and Boissel, Mathilde and Chai, Jin Fang and Chen, Xu and Divers, Jasmin and Gandin, Ilaria and Gao, Chuan and Goel, Anuj and Hagemeijer, Yanick and Harris, Sarah E and Hartwig, Fernando P and He, Meian and Horimoto, Andrea R V R and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Jackson, Anne U and Kasturiratne, Anuradhani and Komulainen, Pirjo and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Laguzzi, Federica and Lee, Joseph H and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Matoba, Nana and Nolte, Ilja M and Pietzner, Maik and Riaz, Muhammad and Said, M Abdullah and Scott, Robert A and Sofer, Tamar and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Tayo, Bamidele O and van der Most, Peter J and Varga, Tibor V and Wang, Yajuan and Ware, Erin B and Wen, Wanqing and Yanek, Lisa R and Zhang, Weihua and Zhao, Jing Hua and Afaq, Saima and Amin, Najaf and Amini, Marzyeh and Arking, Dan E and Aung, Tin and Ballantyne, Christie and Boerwinkle, Eric and Broeckel, Ulrich and Campbell, Archie and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Charumathi, Sabanayagam and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Connell, John M and de Faire, Ulf and de Las Fuentes, Lisa and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and de Silva, H Janaka and Ding, Jingzhong and Dominiczak, Anna F and Duan, Qing and Eaton, Charles B and Eppinga, Ruben N and Faul, Jessica D and Fisher, Virginia and Forrester, Terrence and Franco, Oscar H and Friedlander, Yechiel and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Giulianini, Franco and Grabe, Hans J and Grove, Megan L and Gu, C Charles and Harris, Tamara B and Heikkinen, Sami and Heng, Chew-Kiat and Hirata, Makoto and Hixson, James E and Howard, Barbara V and Ikram, M Arfan and Jacobs, David R and Johnson, Craig and Jonas, Jost Bruno and Kammerer, Candace M and Katsuya, Tomohiro and Khor, Chiea Chuen and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Koh, Woon-Puay and Koistinen, Heikki A and Kolcic, Ivana and Kooperberg, Charles and Krieger, Jose E and Kritchevsky, Steve B and Kubo, Michiaki and Kuusisto, Johanna and Lakka, Timo A and Langefeld, Carl D and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lehne, Benjamin and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Li, Yize and Liang, Jingjing and Liu, Jianjun and Liu, Kiang and Loh, Marie and Louie, Tin and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Manichaikul, Ani W and McKenzie, Colin A and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Milaneschi, Yuri and Milani, Lili and Mohlke, Karen L and Mosley, Thomas H and Mukamal, Kenneth J and Nalls, Mike A and Nauck, Matthias and Nelson, Christopher P and Sotoodehnia, Nona and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff R and Palmer, Nicholette D and Pazoki, Raha and Pedersen, Nancy L and Peters, Annette and Peyser, Patricia A and Polasek, Ozren and Poulter, Neil and Raffel, Leslie J and Raitakari, Olli T and Reiner, Alex P and Rice, Treva K and Rich, Stephen S and Robino, Antonietta and Robinson, Jennifer G and Rose, Lynda M and Rudan, Igor and Schmidt, Carsten O and Schreiner, Pamela J and Scott, William R and Sever, Peter and Shi, Yuan and Sidney, Stephen and Sims, Mario and Smith, Blair H and Smith, Jennifer A and Snieder, Harold and Starr, John M and Strauch, Konstantin and Tan, Nicholas and Taylor, Kent D and Teo, Yik Ying and Tham, Yih Chung and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Heemst, Diana and Vuckovic, Dragana and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wang, Lihua and Wang, Yujie and Wang, Zhe and Wei, Wen Bin and Williams, Christine and Wilson, Gregory and Wojczynski, Mary K and Yao, Jie and Yu, Bing and Yu, Caizheng and Yuan, Jian-Min and Zhao, Wei and Zonderman, Alan B and Becker, Diane M and Boehnke, Michael and Bowden, Donald W and Chambers, John C and Deary, Ian J and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Farrall, Martin and Franks, Paul W and Freedman, Barry I and Froguel, Philippe and Gasparini, Paolo and Gieger, Christian and Horta, Bernardo L and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kato, Norihiro and Kooner, Jaspal S and Laakso, Markku and Leander, Karin and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Penninx, Brenda and Pereira, Alexandre C and Rauramaa, Rainer and Samani, Nilesh J and Scott, James and Shu, Xiao-Ou and van der Harst, Pim and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Wang, Ya Xing and Wareham, Nicholas J and Watkins, Hugh and Weir, David R and Wickremasinghe, Ananda R and Zheng, Wei and Elliott, Paul and North, Kari E and Bouchard, Claude and Evans, Michele K and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Liu, Ching-Ti and Liu, Yongmei and Psaty, Bruce M and Ridker, Paul M and van Dam, Rob M and Kardia, Sharon L R and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Rotimi, Charles N and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Fornage, Myriam and Kelly, Tanika N and Fox, Ervin R and Hayward, Caroline and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Tai, E Shyong and Wong, Tien Yin and Liu, Jingmin and Rotter, Jerome I and Gauderman, W James and Province, Michael A and Munroe, Patricia B and Rice, Kenneth and Chasman, Daniel I and Cupples, L Adrienne and Rao, Dabeeru C and Morrison, Alanna C} } @article {8005, title = {Multi-ancestry genome-wide gene-smoking interaction study of 387,272 individuals identifies new loci associated with serum lipids.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {51}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Apr}, pages = {636-648}, abstract = {

The concentrations of high- and low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides are influenced by smoking, but it is unknown whether genetic associations with lipids may be modified by smoking. We conducted a multi-ancestry genome-wide gene-smoking interaction study in 133,805 individuals with follow-up in an additional 253,467 individuals. Combined meta-analyses identified 13 new loci associated with lipids, some of which were detected only because association differed by smoking status. Additionally, we demonstrate the importance of including diverse populations, particularly in studies of interactions with lifestyle factors, where genomic and lifestyle differences by ancestry may contribute to novel findings.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-019-0378-y}, author = {Bentley, Amy R and Sung, Yun J and Brown, Michael R and Winkler, Thomas W and Kraja, Aldi T and Ntalla, Ioanna and Schwander, Karen and Chasman, Daniel I and Lim, Elise and Deng, Xuan and Guo, Xiuqing and Liu, Jingmin and Lu, Yingchang and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Sim, Xueling and Vojinovic, Dina and Huffman, Jennifer E and Musani, Solomon K and Li, Changwei and Feitosa, Mary F and Richard, Melissa A and Noordam, Raymond and Baker, Jenna and Chen, Guanjie and Aschard, Hugues and Bartz, Traci M and Ding, Jingzhong and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Manning, Alisa K and Rankinen, Tuomo and Smith, Albert V and Tajuddin, Salman M and Zhao, Wei and Graff, Mariaelisa and Alver, Maris and Boissel, Mathilde and Chai, Jin Fang and Chen, Xu and Divers, Jasmin and Evangelou, Evangelos and Gao, Chuan and Goel, Anuj and Hagemeijer, Yanick and Harris, Sarah E and Hartwig, Fernando P and He, Meian and Horimoto, Andrea R V R and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Hung, Yi-Jen and Jackson, Anne U and Kasturiratne, Anuradhani and Komulainen, Pirjo and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Leander, Karin and Lin, Keng-Hung and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Matoba, Nana and Nolte, Ilja M and Pietzner, Maik and Prins, Bram and Riaz, Muhammad and Robino, Antonietta and Said, M Abdullah and Schupf, Nicole and Scott, Robert A and Sofer, Tamar and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Tayo, Bamidele O and van der Most, Peter J and Varga, Tibor V and Wang, Tzung-Dau and Wang, Yajuan and Ware, Erin B and Wen, Wanqing and Xiang, Yong-Bing and Yanek, Lisa R and Zhang, Weihua and Zhao, Jing Hua and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Afaq, Saima and Amin, Najaf and Amini, Marzyeh and Arking, Dan E and Arzumanyan, Zorayr and Aung, Tin and Ballantyne, Christie and Barr, R Graham and Bielak, Lawrence F and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bottinger, Erwin P and Broeckel, Ulrich and Brown, Morris and Cade, Brian E and Campbell, Archie and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Charumathi, Sabanayagam and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Christensen, Kaare and Concas, Maria Pina and Connell, John M and de Las Fuentes, Lisa and de Silva, H Janaka and de Vries, Paul S and Doumatey, Ayo and Duan, Qing and Eaton, Charles B and Eppinga, Ruben N and Faul, Jessica D and Floyd, James S and Forouhi, Nita G and Forrester, Terrence and Friedlander, Yechiel and Gandin, Ilaria and Gao, He and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Gharib, Sina A and Gigante, Bruna and Giulianini, Franco and Grabe, Hans J and Gu, C Charles and Harris, Tamara B and Heikkinen, Sami and Heng, Chew-Kiat and Hirata, Makoto and Hixson, James E and Ikram, M Arfan and Jia, Yucheng and Joehanes, Roby and Johnson, Craig and Jonas, Jost Bruno and Justice, Anne E and Katsuya, Tomohiro and Khor, Chiea Chuen and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Koh, Woon-Puay and Kolcic, Ivana and Kooperberg, Charles and Krieger, Jose E and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Kubo, Michiaki and Kuusisto, Johanna and Lakka, Timo A and Langefeld, Carl D and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Lehne, Benjamin and Lewis, Cora E and Li, Yize and Liang, Jingjing and Lin, Shiow and Liu, Ching-Ti and Liu, Jianjun and Liu, Kiang and Loh, Marie and Lohman, Kurt K and Louie, Tin and Luzzi, Anna and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Mahajan, Anubha and Manichaikul, Ani W and McKenzie, Colin A and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Milaneschi, Yuri and Milani, Lili and Mohlke, Karen L and Momozawa, Yukihide and Morris, Andrew P and Murray, Alison D and Nalls, Mike A and Nauck, Matthias and Nelson, Christopher P and North, Kari E and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeffrey R and Palmer, Nicholette D and Papanicolau, George J and Pedersen, Nancy L and Peters, Annette and Peyser, Patricia A and Polasek, Ozren and Poulter, Neil and Raitakari, Olli T and Reiner, Alex P and Renstrom, Frida and Rice, Treva K and Rich, Stephen S and Robinson, Jennifer G and Rose, Lynda M and Rosendaal, Frits R and Rudan, Igor and Schmidt, Carsten O and Schreiner, Pamela J and Scott, William R and Sever, Peter and Shi, Yuan and Sidney, Stephen and Sims, Mario and Smith, Jennifer A and Snieder, Harold and Starr, John M and Strauch, Konstantin and Stringham, Heather M and Tan, Nicholas Y Q and Tang, Hua and Taylor, Kent D and Teo, Yik Ying and Tham, Yih Chung and Tiemeier, Henning and Turner, Stephen T and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Heemst, Diana and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wang, Heming and Wang, Lan and Wang, Lihua and Wei, Wen Bin and Williams, Christine A and Wilson, Gregory and Wojczynski, Mary K and Yao, Jie and Young, Kristin and Yu, Caizheng and Yuan, Jian-Min and Zhou, Jie and Zonderman, Alan B and Becker, Diane M and Boehnke, Michael and Bowden, Donald W and Chambers, John C and Cooper, Richard S and de Faire, Ulf and Deary, Ian J and Elliott, Paul and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Farrall, Martin and Franks, Paul W and Freedman, Barry I and Froguel, Philippe and Gasparini, Paolo and Gieger, Christian and Horta, Bernardo L and Juang, Jyh-Ming Jimmy and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kammerer, Candace M and Kato, Norihiro and Kooner, Jaspal S and Laakso, Markku and Laurie, Cathy C and Lee, I-Te and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Pereira, Alexandre C and Rauramaa, Rainer and Redline, Susan and Samani, Nilesh J and Scott, James and Shu, Xiao-Ou and van der Harst, Pim and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Wang, Jun-Sing and Wang, Ya Xing and Wareham, Nicholas J and Watkins, Hugh and Weir, David R and Wickremasinghe, Ananda R and Wu, Tangchun and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Zheng, Wei and Bouchard, Claude and Evans, Michele K and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Kardia, Sharon L R and Liu, Yongmei and Psaty, Bruce M and Ridker, Paul M and van Dam, Rob M and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Fornage, Myriam and Province, Michael A and Kelly, Tanika N and Fox, Ervin R and Hayward, Caroline and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Tai, E Shyong and Wong, Tien Yin and Loos, Ruth J F and Franceschini, Nora and Rotter, Jerome I and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Bierut, Laura J and Gauderman, W James and Rice, Kenneth and Munroe, Patricia B and Morrison, Alanna C and Rao, Dabeeru C and Rotimi, Charles N and Cupples, L Adrienne} } @article {8281, title = {{A multi-ancestry genome-wide study incorporating gene-smoking interactions identifies multiple new loci for pulse pressure and mean arterial pressure}, journal = {Hum. Mol. Genet.}, year = {2019}, month = {Apr}, abstract = {Elevated blood pressure (BP), a leading cause of global morbidity and mortality, is influenced by both genetic and lifestyle factors. Cigarette smoking is one such lifestyle factor. Across five ancestries, we performed a genome-wide gene-smoking interaction study of mean arterial pressure (MAP) and pulse pressure (PP) in 129 913 individuals in stage 1 and follow-up analysis in 480 178 additional individuals in stage 2. We report here 136 loci significantly associated with MAP and/or PP. Of these, 61 were previously published through main-effect analysis of BP traits, 37 were recently reported by us for systolic BP and/or diastolic BP through gene-smoking interaction analysis and 38 were newly identified (P < 5 {\~A}{\textemdash} 10-8, false discovery rate < 0.05). We also identified nine new signals near known loci. Of the 136 loci, 8 showed significant interaction with smoking status. They include CSMD1 previously reported for insulin resistance and BP in the spontaneously hypertensive rats. Many of the 38 new loci show biologic plausibility for a role in BP regulation. SLC26A7 encodes a chloride/bicarbonate exchanger expressed in the renal outer medullary collecting duct. AVPR1A is widely expressed, including in vascular smooth muscle cells, kidney, myocardium and brain. FHAD1 is a long non-coding RNA overexpressed in heart failure. TMEM51 was associated with contractile function in cardiomyocytes. CASP9 plays a central role in cardiomyocyte apoptosis. Identified only in African ancestry were 30 novel loci. Our findings highlight the value of multi-ancestry investigations, particularly in studies of interaction with lifestyle factors, where genomic and lifestyle differences may contribute to novel findings.}, author = {Sung, Y. J. and de Las Fuentes, L. and Winkler, T. W. and Chasman, D. I. and Bentley, A. R. and Kraja, A. T. and Ntalla, I. and Warren, H. R. and Guo, X. and Schwander, K. and Manning, A. K. and Brown, M. R. and Aschard, H. and Feitosa, M. F. and Franceschini, N. and Lu, Y. and Cheng, C. Y. and Sim, X. and Vojinovic, D. and Marten, J. and Musani, S. K. and Kilpel?inen, T. O. and Richard, M. A. and Aslibekyan, S. and Bartz, T. M. and Dorajoo, R. and Li, C. and Liu, Y. and Rankinen, T. and Smith, A. V. and Tajuddin, S. M. and Tayo, B. O. and Zhao, W. and Zhou, Y. and Matoba, N. and Sofer, T. and Alver, M. and Amini, M. and Boissel, M. and Chai, J. F. and Chen, X. and Divers, J. and Gandin, I. and Gao, C. and Giulianini, F. and Goel, A. and Harris, S. E. and Hartwig, F. P. and He, M. and Horimoto, A. R. V. R. and Hsu, F. C. and Jackson, A. U. and Kammerer, C. M. and Kasturiratne, A. and Komulainen, P. and K?hnel, B. and Leander, K. and Lee, W. J. and Lin, K. H. and Luan, J. and Lyytik?inen, L. P. and McKenzie, C. A. and Nelson, C. P. and Noordam, R. and Scott, R. A. and Sheu, W. H. H. and Stan??kov?, A. and Takeuchi, F. and van der Most, P. J. and Varga, T. V. and Waken, R. J. and Wang, H. and Wang, Y. and Ware, E. B. and Weiss, S. and Wen, W. and Yanek, L. R. and Zhang, W. and Zhao, J. H. and Afaq, S. and Alfred, T. and Amin, N. and Arking, D. E. and Aung, T. and Barr, R. G. and Bielak, L. F. and Boerwinkle, E. and Bottinger, E. P. and Braund, P. S. and Brody, J. A. and Broeckel, U. and Cade, B. and Campbell, A. and Canouil, M. and Chakravarti, A. and Cocca, M. and Collins, F. S. and Connell, J. M. and de Mutsert, R. and de Silva, H. J. and D?rr, M. and Duan, Q. and Eaton, C. B. and Ehret, G. and Evangelou, E. and Faul, J. D. and Forouhi, N. G. and Franco, O. H. and Friedlander, Y. and Gao, H. and Gigante, B. and Gu, C. C. and Gupta, P. and Hagenaars, S. P. and Harris, T. B. and He, J. and Heikkinen, S. and Heng, C. K. and Hofman, A. and Howard, B. V. and Hunt, S. C. and Irvin, M. R. and Jia, Y. and Katsuya, T. and Kaufman, J. and Kerrison, N. D. and Khor, C. C. and Koh, W. P. and Koistinen, H. A. and Kooperberg, C. B. and Krieger, J. E. and Kubo, M. and Kutalik, Z. and Kuusisto, J. and Lakka, T. A. and Langefeld, C. D. and Langenberg, C. and Launer, L. J. and Lee, J. H. and Lehne, B. and Levy, D. and Lewis, C. E. and Li, Y. and Lim, S. H. and Liu, C. T. and Liu, J. and Liu, J. and Liu, Y. and Loh, M. and Lohman, K. K. and Louie, T. and M?gi, R. and Matsuda, K. and Meitinger, T. and Metspalu, A. and Milani, L. and Momozawa, Y. and Mosley, T. H. and Nalls, M. A. and Nasri, U. and O{\textquoteright}Connell, J. R. and Ogunniyi, A. and Palmas, W. R. and Palmer, N. D. and Pankow, J. S. and Pedersen, N. L. and Peters, A. and Peyser, P. A. and Polasek, O. and Porteous, D. and Raitakari, O. T. and Renstr?m, F. and Rice, T. K. and Ridker, P. M. and Robino, A. and Robinson, J. G. and Rose, L. M. and Rudan, I. and Sabanayagam, C. and Salako, B. L. and Sandow, K. and Schmidt, C. O. and Schreiner, P. J. and Scott, W. R. and Sever, P. and Sims, M. and Sitlani, C. M. and Smith, B. H. and Smith, J. A. and Snieder, H. and Starr, J. M. and Strauch, K. and Tang, H. and Taylor, K. D. and Teo, Y. Y. and Tham, Y. C. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and Waldenberger, M. and Wang, L. and Wang, Y. X. and Wei, W. B. and Wilson, G. and Wojczynski, M. K. and Xiang, Y. B. and Yao, J. and Yuan, J. M. and Zonderman, A. B. and Becker, D. M. and Boehnke, M. and Bowden, D. W. and Chambers, J. C. and Chen, Y. I. and Weir, D. R. and de Faire, U. and Deary, I. J. and Esko, T. and Farrall, M. and Forrester, T. and Freedman, B. I. and Froguel, P. and Gasparini, P. and Gieger, C. and Horta, B. L. and Hung, Y. J. and Jonas, J. B. and Kato, N. and Kooner, J. S. and Laakso, M. and Lehtim?ki, T. and Liang, K. W. and Magnusson, P. K. E. and Oldehinkel, A. J. and Pereira, A. C. and Perls, T. and Rauramaa, R. and Redline, S. and Rettig, R. and Samani, N. J. and Scott, J. and Shu, X. O. and van der Harst, P. and Wagenknecht, L. E. and Wareham, N. J. and Watkins, H. and Wickremasinghe, A. R. and Wu, T. and Kamatani, Y. and Laurie, C. C. and Bouchard, C. and Cooper, R. S. and Evans, M. K. and Gudnason, V. and Hixson, J. and Kardia, S. L. R. and Kritchevsky, S. B. and Psaty, B. M. and van Dam, R. M. and Arnett, D. K. and Mook-Kanamori, D. O. and Fornage, M. and Fox, E. R. and Hayward, C. and van Duijn, C. M. and Tai, E. S. and Wong, T. Y. and Loos, R. J. F. and Reiner, A. P. and Rotimi, C. N. and Bierut, L. J. and Zhu, X. and Cupples, L. A. and Province, M. A. and Rotter, J. I. and Franks, P. W. and Rice, K. and Elliott, P. and Caulfield, M. J. and Gauderman, W. J. and Munroe, P. B. and Rao, D. C. and Morrison, A. C.} } @article {8202, title = {Multi-ancestry sleep-by-SNP interaction analysis in 126,926 individuals reveals lipid loci stratified by sleep duration.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {10}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Nov 12}, pages = {5121}, abstract = {

Both short and long sleep are associated with an adverse lipid profile, likely through different biological pathways. To elucidate the biology of sleep-associated adverse lipid profile, we conduct multi-ancestry genome-wide sleep-SNP interaction analyses on three lipid traits (HDL-c, LDL-c and triglycerides). In the total study sample (discovery + replication) of 126,926 individuals from 5 different ancestry groups, when considering either long or short total sleep time interactions in joint analyses, we identify 49 previously unreported lipid loci, and 10 additional previously unreported lipid loci in a restricted sample of European-ancestry cohorts. In addition, we identify new gene-sleep interactions for known lipid loci such as LPL and PCSK9. The previously unreported lipid loci have a modest explained variance in lipid levels: most notable, gene-short-sleep interactions explain 4.25\% of the variance in triglyceride level. Collectively, these findings contribute to our understanding of the biological mechanisms involved in sleep-associated adverse lipid profiles.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-019-12958-0}, author = {Noordam, Raymond and Bos, Maxime M and Wang, Heming and Winkler, Thomas W and Bentley, Amy R and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and de Vries, Paul S and Sung, Yun Ju and Schwander, Karen and Cade, Brian E and Manning, Alisa and Aschard, Hugues and Brown, Michael R and Chen, Han and Franceschini, Nora and Musani, Solomon K and Richard, Melissa and Vojinovic, Dina and Aslibekyan, Stella and Bartz, Traci M and de Las Fuentes, Lisa and Feitosa, Mary and Horimoto, Andrea R and Ilkov, Marjan and Kho, Minjung and Kraja, Aldi and Li, Changwei and Lim, Elise and Liu, Yongmei and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Rankinen, Tuomo and Tajuddin, Salman M and van der Spek, Ashley and Wang, Zhe and Marten, Jonathan and Laville, Vincent and Alver, Maris and Evangelou, Evangelos and Graff, Maria E and He, Meian and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Marques-Vidal, Pedro and Nolte, Ilja M and Palmer, Nicholette D and Rauramaa, Rainer and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Snieder, Harold and Weiss, Stefan and Wen, Wanqing and Yanek, Lisa R and Adolfo, Correa and Ballantyne, Christie and Bielak, Larry and Biermasz, Nienke R and Boerwinkle, Eric and Dimou, Niki and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Gao, Chuan and Gharib, Sina A and Gottlieb, Daniel J and Haba-Rubio, Jos{\'e} and Harris, Tamara B and Heikkinen, Sami and Heinzer, Raphael and Hixson, James E and Homuth, Georg and Ikram, M Arfan and Komulainen, Pirjo and Krieger, Jose E and Lee, Jiwon and Liu, Jingmin and Lohman, Kurt K and Luik, Annemarie I and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Martin, Lisa W and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Milaneschi, Yuri and Nalls, Mike A and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff and Peters, Annette and Peyser, Patricia and Raitakari, Olli T and Reiner, Alex P and Rensen, Patrick C N and Rice, Treva K and Rich, Stephen S and Roenneberg, Till and Rotter, Jerome I and Schreiner, Pamela J and Shikany, James and Sidney, Stephen S and Sims, Mario and Sitlani, Colleen M and Sofer, Tamar and Strauch, Konstantin and Swertz, Morris A and Taylor, Kent D and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wallance, Robert B and van Dijk, Ko Willems and Yu, Caizheng and Zonderman, Alan B and Becker, Diane M and Elliott, Paul and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Gieger, Christian and Grabe, Hans J and Lakka, Timo A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and North, Kari E and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Vollenweider, Peter and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Wu, Tangchun and Xiang, Yong-Bing and Zheng, Wei and Arnett, Donna K and Bouchard, Claude and Evans, Michele K and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Kardia, Sharon and Kelly, Tanika N and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Loos, Ruth J F and Pereira, Alexandre C and Province, Mike and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotimi, Charles and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Amin, Najaf and Cupples, L Adrienne and Fornage, Myriam and Fox, Ervin F and Guo, Xiuqing and Gauderman, W James and Rice, Kenneth and Kooperberg, Charles and Munroe, Patricia B and Liu, Ching-Ti and Morrison, Alanna C and Rao, Dabeeru C and van Heemst, Diana and Redline, Susan} } @article {7976, title = {Multi-ancestry study of blood lipid levels identifies four loci interacting with physical activity.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {10}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 01 22}, pages = {376}, abstract = {

Many genetic loci affect circulating lipid levels, but it remains unknown whether lifestyle factors, such as physical activity, modify these genetic effects. To identify lipid loci interacting with physical activity, we performed genome-wide analyses of circulating HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglyceride levels in up to 120,979 individuals of European, African, Asian, Hispanic, and Brazilian ancestry, with follow-up of suggestive associations in an additional 131,012 individuals. We find four loci, in/near CLASP1, LHX1, SNTA1, and CNTNAP2, that are associated with circulating lipid levels through interaction with physical activity; higher levels of physical activity enhance the HDL cholesterol-increasing effects of the CLASP1, LHX1, and SNTA1 loci and attenuate the LDL cholesterol-increasing effect of the CNTNAP2 locus. The CLASP1, LHX1, and SNTA1 regions harbor genes linked to muscle function and lipid metabolism. Our results elucidate the role of physical activity interactions in the genetic contribution to blood lipid levels.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, African Continental Ancestry Group, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Brazil, Calcium-Binding Proteins, Cholesterol, Cholesterol, HDL, Cholesterol, LDL, European Continental Ancestry Group, Exercise, Female, Genetic Loci, Genome-Wide Association Study, Genotype, Hispanic Americans, Humans, LIM-Homeodomain Proteins, Lipid Metabolism, Lipids, Male, Membrane Proteins, Microtubule-Associated Proteins, Middle Aged, Muscle Proteins, Nerve Tissue Proteins, Transcription Factors, Triglycerides, Young Adult}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-08008-w}, author = {Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Bentley, Amy R and Noordam, Raymond and Sung, Yun Ju and Schwander, Karen and Winkler, Thomas W and Jakupovi{\'c}, Hermina and Chasman, Daniel I and Manning, Alisa and Ntalla, Ioanna and Aschard, Hugues and Brown, Michael R and de Las Fuentes, Lisa and Franceschini, Nora and Guo, Xiuqing and Vojinovic, Dina and Aslibekyan, Stella and Feitosa, Mary F and Kho, Minjung and Musani, Solomon K and Richard, Melissa and Wang, Heming and Wang, Zhe and Bartz, Traci M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Campbell, Archie and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Fisher, Virginia and Hartwig, Fernando P and Horimoto, Andrea R V R and Li, Changwei and Lohman, Kurt K and Marten, Jonathan and Sim, Xueling and Smith, Albert V and Tajuddin, Salman M and Alver, Maris and Amini, Marzyeh and Boissel, Mathilde and Chai, Jin Fang and Chen, Xu and Divers, Jasmin and Evangelou, Evangelos and Gao, Chuan and Graff, Mariaelisa and Harris, Sarah E and He, Meian and Hsu, Fang-Chi and Jackson, Anne U and Zhao, Jing Hua and Kraja, Aldi T and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Laguzzi, Federica and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Nolte, Ilja M and Rauramaa, Rainer and Riaz, Muhammad and Robino, Antonietta and Rueedi, Rico and Stringham, Heather M and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and van der Most, Peter J and Varga, Tibor V and Verweij, Niek and Ware, Erin B and Wen, Wanqing and Li, Xiaoyin and Yanek, Lisa R and Amin, Najaf and Arnett, Donna K and Boerwinkle, Eric and Brumat, Marco and Cade, Brian and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Concas, Maria Pina and Connell, John and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and de Silva, H Janaka and de Vries, Paul S and Demirkan, Ayse and Ding, Jingzhong and Eaton, Charles B and Faul, Jessica D and Friedlander, Yechiel and Gabriel, Kelley P and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Giulianini, Franco and Gu, Chi Charles and Gu, Dongfeng and Harris, Tamara B and He, Jiang and Heikkinen, Sami and Heng, Chew-Kiat and Hunt, Steven C and Ikram, M Arfan and Jonas, Jost B and Koh, Woon-Puay and Komulainen, Pirjo and Krieger, Jose E and Kritchevsky, Stephen B and Kutalik, Zolt{\'a}n and Kuusisto, Johanna and Langefeld, Carl D and Langenberg, Claudia and Launer, Lenore J and Leander, Karin and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Lewis, Cora E and Liang, Jingjing and Liu, Jianjun and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Manichaikul, Ani and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Milaneschi, Yuri and Mohlke, Karen L and Mosley, Thomas H and Murray, Alison D and Nalls, Mike A and Nang, Ei-Ei Khaing and Nelson, Christopher P and Nona, Sotoodehnia and Norris, Jill M and Nwuba, Chiamaka Vivian and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff and Palmer, Nicholette D and Papanicolau, George J and Pazoki, Raha and Pedersen, Nancy L and Peters, Annette and Peyser, Patricia A and Polasek, Ozren and Porteous, David J and Poveda, Alaitz and Raitakari, Olli T and Rich, Stephen S and Risch, Neil and Robinson, Jennifer G and Rose, Lynda M and Rudan, Igor and Schreiner, Pamela J and Scott, Robert A and Sidney, Stephen S and Sims, Mario and Smith, Jennifer A and Snieder, Harold and Sofer, Tamar and Starr, John M and Sternfeld, Barbara and Strauch, Konstantin and Tang, Hua and Taylor, Kent D and Tsai, Michael Y and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van der Ende, M Yldau and van Heemst, Diana and Voortman, Trudy and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wennberg, Patrik and Wilson, Gregory and Xiang, Yong-Bing and Yao, Jie and Yu, Caizheng and Yuan, Jian-Min and Zhao, Wei and Zonderman, Alan B and Becker, Diane M and Boehnke, Michael and Bowden, Donald W and de Faire, Ulf and Deary, Ian J and Elliott, Paul and Esko, T{\~o}nu and Freedman, Barry I and Froguel, Philippe and Gasparini, Paolo and Gieger, Christian and Kato, Norihiro and Laakso, Markku and Lakka, Timo A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Magnusson, Patrik K E and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Samani, Nilesh J and Shu, Xiao-Ou and van der Harst, Pim and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Vollenweider, Peter and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Wang, Ya X and Wareham, Nicholas J and Weir, David R and Wu, Tangchun and Zheng, Wei and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Evans, Michele K and Franks, Paul W and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hayward, Caroline and Horta, Bernardo L and Kelly, Tanika N and Liu, Yongmei and North, Kari E and Pereira, Alexandre C and Ridker, Paul M and Tai, E Shyong and van Dam, Rob M and Fox, Ervin R and Kardia, Sharon L R and Liu, Ching-Ti and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Province, Michael A and Redline, Susan and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Rotter, Jerome I and Kooperberg, Charles B and Gauderman, W James and Psaty, Bruce M and Rice, Kenneth and Munroe, Patricia B and Fornage, Myriam and Cupples, L Adrienne and Rotimi, Charles N and Morrison, Alanna C and Rao, Dabeeru C and Loos, Ruth J F} } @article {7990, title = {Multiethnic Genome-Wide Association Study of Diabetic Retinopathy Using Liability Threshold Modeling of Duration of Diabetes and Glycemic Control.}, journal = {Diabetes}, volume = {68}, year = {2019}, month = {2019 Feb}, pages = {441-456}, abstract = {

To identify genetic variants associated with diabetic retinopathy (DR), we performed a large multiethnic genome-wide association study. Discovery included eight European cohorts ( = 3,246) and seven African American cohorts ( = 2,611). We meta-analyzed across cohorts using inverse-variance weighting, with and without liability threshold modeling of glycemic control and duration of diabetes. Variants with a value <1 {\texttimes} 10 were investigated in replication cohorts that included 18,545 European, 16,453 Asian, and 2,710 Hispanic subjects. After correction for multiple testing, the C allele of rs142293996 in an intron of nuclear VCP-like () was associated with DR in European discovery cohorts ( = 2.1 {\texttimes} 10), but did not reach genome-wide significance after meta-analysis with replication cohorts. We applied the Disease Association Protein-Protein Link Evaluator (DAPPLE) to our discovery results to test for evidence of risk being spread across underlying molecular pathways. One protein-protein interaction network built from genes in regions associated with proliferative DR was found to have significant connectivity ( = 0.0009) and corroborated with gene set enrichment analyses. These findings suggest that genetic variation in as well as variation within a protein-protein interaction network that includes genes implicated in inflammation, may influence risk for DR.

}, issn = {1939-327X}, doi = {10.2337/db18-0567}, author = {Pollack, Samuela and Igo, Robert P and Jensen, Richard A and Christiansen, Mark and Li, Xiaohui and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Ng, Maggie C Y and Smith, Albert V and Rossin, Elizabeth J and Segr{\`e}, Ayellet V and Davoudi, Samaneh and Tan, Gavin S and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Kuo, Jane Z and Dimitrov, Latchezar M and Stanwyck, Lynn K and Meng, Weihua and Hosseini, S Mohsen and Imamura, Minako and Nousome, Darryl and Kim, Jihye and Hai, Yang and Jia, Yucheng and Ahn, Jeeyun and Leong, Aaron and Shah, Kaanan and Park, Kyu Hyung and Guo, Xiuqing and Ipp, Eli and Taylor, Kent D and Adler, Sharon G and Sedor, John R and Freedman, Barry I and Lee, I-Te and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Kubo, Michiaki and Takahashi, Atsushi and Hadjadj, Samy and Marre, Michel and Tr{\'e}gou{\"e}t, David-Alexandre and McKean-Cowdin, Roberta and Varma, Rohit and McCarthy, Mark I and Groop, Leif and Ahlqvist, Emma and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Agardh, Elisabet and Morris, Andrew and Doney, Alex S F and Colhoun, Helen M and Toppila, Iiro and Sandholm, Niina and Groop, Per-Henrik and Maeda, Shiro and Hanis, Craig L and Penman, Alan and Chen, Ching J and Hancock, Heather and Mitchell, Paul and Craig, Jamie E and Chew, Emily Y and Paterson, Andrew D and Grassi, Michael A and Palmer, Colin and Bowden, Donald W and Yaspan, Brian L and Siscovick, David and Cotch, Mary Frances and Wang, Jie Jin and Burdon, Kathryn P and Wong, Tien Y and Klein, Barbara E K and Klein, Ronald and Rotter, Jerome I and Iyengar, Sudha K and Price, Alkes L and Sobrin, Lucia} } @article {8410, title = {Mendelian randomization analysis does not support causal associations of birth weight with hypertension risk and blood pressure in adulthood.}, journal = {Eur J Epidemiol}, volume = {35}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Jul}, pages = {685-697}, abstract = {

Epidemiology studies suggested that low birthweight was associated with a higher risk of hypertension in later life. However, little is known about the causality of such associations. In our study, we evaluated the causal association of low birthweight with adulthood hypertension following a standard analytic protocol using the study-level data of 183,433 participants from 60 studies (CHARGE-BIG consortium), as well as that with blood pressure using publicly available summary-level genome-wide association data from EGG consortium of 153,781 participants, ICBP consortium and UK Biobank cohort together of 757,601 participants. We used seven SNPs as the instrumental variable in the study-level analysis and 47 SNPs in the summary-level analysis. In the study-level analyses, decreased birthweight was associated with a higher risk of hypertension in adults (the odds ratio per 1 standard deviation (SD) lower birthweight, 1.22; 95\% CI 1.16 to 1.28), while no association was found between genetically instrumented birthweight and hypertension risk (instrumental odds ratio for causal effect per 1 SD lower birthweight, 0.97; 95\% CI 0.68 to 1.41). Such results were consistent with that from the summary-level analyses, where the genetically determined low birthweight was not associated with blood pressure measurements either. One SD lower genetically determined birthweight was not associated with systolic blood pressure (β = - 0.76, 95\% CI - 2.45 to 1.08~mmHg), 0.06~mmHg lower diastolic blood pressure (β = - 0.06, 95\% CI - 0.93 to 0.87~mmHg), or pulse pressure (β = - 0.65, 95\% CI - 1.38 to 0.69~mmHg, all p > 0.05). Our findings suggest that the inverse association of birthweight with hypertension risk from observational studies was not supported by large Mendelian randomization analyses.

}, issn = {1573-7284}, doi = {10.1007/s10654-020-00638-z}, author = {Zheng, Yan and Huang, Tao and Wang, Tiange and Mei, Zhendong and Sun, Zhonghan and Zhang, Tao and Ellervik, Christina and Chai, Jin-Fang and Sim, Xueling and van Dam, Rob M and Tai, E-Shyong and Koh, Woon-Puay and Dorajoo, Rajkumar and Saw, Seang-Mei and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Wong, Tien Yin and Gupta, Preeti and Rossing, Peter and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Vinding, Rebecca K and Bisgaard, Hans and B{\o}nnelykke, Klaus and Wang, Yujie and Graff, Mariaelisa and Voortman, Trudy and van Rooij, Frank J A and Hofman, Albert and van Heemst, Diana and Noordam, Raymond and Estampador, Angela C and Varga, Tibor V and Enzenbach, Cornelia and Scholz, Markus and Thiery, Joachim and Burkhardt, Ralph and Orho-Melander, Marju and Schulz, Christina-Alexandra and Ericson, Ulrika and Sonestedt, Emily and Kubo, Michiaki and Akiyama, Masato and Zhou, Ang and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Hansen, Torben and Kleber, Marcus E and Delgado, Graciela and McCarthy, Mark and Lemaitre, Rozenn N and Felix, Janine F and Jaddoe, Vincent W V and Wu, Ying and Mohlke, Karen L and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Wang, Carol A and Pennell, Craig E and Schunkert, Heribert and Kessler, Thorsten and Zeng, Lingyao and Willenborg, Christina and Peters, Annette and Lieb, Wolfgang and Grote, Veit and Rzehak, Peter and Koletzko, Berthold and Erdmann, Jeanette and Munz, Matthias and Wu, Tangchun and He, Meian and Yu, Caizheng and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Froguel, Philippe and Corella, Dolores and Moreno, Luis A and Lai, Chao-Qiang and Pitk{\"a}nen, Niina and Boreham, Colin A and Ridker, Paul M and Rosendaal, Frits R and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Power, Chris and Paternoster, Lavinia and S{\o}rensen, Thorkild I A and Tj{\o}nneland, Anne and Overvad, Kim and Djouss{\'e}, Luc and Rivadeneira, Fernando and Lee, Nanette R and Raitakari, Olli T and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Viikari, Jorma and Langhendries, Jean-Paul and Escribano, Joaquin and Verduci, Elvira and Dedoussis, George and K{\"o}nig, Inke and Balkau, Beverley and Coltell, Oscar and Dallongeville, Jean and Meirhaeghe, Aline and Amouyel, Philippe and Gottrand, Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric and Pahkala, Katja and Niinikoski, Harri and Hypp{\"o}nen, Elina and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and Mackey, David A and Gruszfeld, Dariusz and Tucker, Katherine L and Fumeron, Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric and Estruch, Ramon and Ordovas, Jose M and Arnett, Donna K and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Mozaffarian, Dariush and Psaty, Bruce M and North, Kari E and Chasman, Daniel I and Qi, Lu} } @article {8624, title = {Meta-analysis uncovers genome-wide significant variants for rapid kidney function decline.}, journal = {Kidney Int}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Oct 30}, abstract = {

Rapid decline of glomerular filtration rate estimated from creatinine (eGFRcrea) is associated with severe clinical endpoints. In contrast to cross-sectionally assessed eGFRcrea, the genetic basis for rapid eGFRcrea decline is largely unknown. To help define this, we meta-analyzed 42 genome-wide association studies from the Chronic Kidney Diseases Genetics Consortium and United Kingdom Biobank to identify genetic loci for rapid eGFRcrea decline. Two definitions of eGFRcrea decline were used: 3 mL/min/1.73m/year or more ("Rapid3"; encompassing 34,874 cases, 107,090 controls) and eGFRcrea decline 25\% or more and eGFRcrea under 60 mL/min/1.73m at follow-up among those with eGFRcrea 60 mL/min/1.73m or more at baseline ("CKDi25"; encompassing 19,901 cases, 175,244 controls). Seven independent variants were identified across six loci for Rapid3 and/or CKDi25: consisting of five variants at four loci with genome-wide significance (near UMOD-PDILT (2), PRKAG2, WDR72, OR2S2) and two variants among 265 known eGFRcrea variants (near GATM, LARP4B). All these loci were novel for Rapid3 and/or CKDi25 and our bioinformatic follow-up prioritized variants and genes underneath these loci. The OR2S2 locus is novel for any eGFRcrea trait including interesting candidates. For the five genome-wide significant lead variants, we found supporting effects for annual change in blood urea nitrogen or cystatin-based eGFR, but not for GATM or LARP4B. Individuals at high compared to those at low genetic risk (8-14 vs 0-5 adverse alleles) had a 1.20-fold increased risk of acute kidney injury (95\% confidence interval 1.08-1.33). Thus, our identified loci for rapid kidney function decline may help prioritize therapeutic targets and identify mechanisms and individuals at risk for sustained deterioration of kidney function.

}, issn = {1523-1755}, doi = {10.1016/j.kint.2020.09.030}, author = {Gorski, Mathias and Jung, Bettina and Li, Yong and Matias-Garcia, Pamela R and Wuttke, Matthias and Coassin, Stefan and Thio, Chris H L and Kleber, Marcus E and Winkler, Thomas W and Wanner, Veronika and Chai, Jin-Fang and Chu, Audrey Y and Cocca, Massimiliano and Feitosa, Mary F and Ghasemi, Sahar and Hoppmann, Anselm and Horn, Katrin and Li, Man and Nutile, Teresa and Scholz, Markus and Sieber, Karsten B and Teumer, Alexander and Tin, Adrienne and Wang, Judy and Tayo, Bamidele O and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Almgren, Peter and Bakker, Stephan J L and Banas, Bernhard and Bansal, Nisha and Biggs, Mary L and Boerwinkle, Eric and Bottinger, Erwin P and Brenner, Hermann and Carroll, Robert J and Chalmers, John and Chee, Miao-Li and Chee, Miao-Ling and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Coresh, Josef and de Borst, Martin H and Degenhardt, Frauke and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Endlich, Karlhans and Franke, Andre and Freitag-Wolf, Sandra and Gampawar, Piyush and Gansevoort, Ron T and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Gieger, Christian and Hamet, Pavel and Ho, Kevin and Hofer, Edith and Holleczek, Bernd and Xian Foo, Valencia Hui and Hutri-K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Nina and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Ikram, M Arfan and Josyula, Navya Shilpa and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Khor, Chiea-Chuen and Koenig, Wolfgang and Kramer, Holly and Kr{\"a}mer, Bernhard K and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Lange, Leslie A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lieb, Wolfgang and Loos, Ruth J F and Lukas, Mary Ann and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Meisinger, Christa and Meitinger, Thomas and Melander, Olle and Milaneschi, Yuri and Mishra, Pashupati P and Mononen, Nina and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and Nadkarni, Girish N and Nauck, Matthias and Nikus, Kjell and Ning, Boting and Nolte, Ilja M and O{\textquoteright}Donoghue, Michelle L and Orho-Melander, Marju and Pendergrass, Sarah A and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Preuss, Michael H and Psaty, Bruce M and Raffield, Laura M and Raitakari, Olli T and Rettig, Rainer and Rheinberger, Myriam and Rice, Kenneth M and Rosenkranz, Alexander R and Rossing, Peter and Rotter, Jerome I and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Schmidt, Helena and Schmidt, Reinhold and Sch{\"o}ttker, Ben and Schulz, Christina-Alexandra and Sedaghat, Sanaz and Shaffer, Christian M and Strauch, Konstantin and Szymczak, Silke and Taylor, Kent D and Tremblay, Johanne and Chaker, Layal and van der Harst, Pim and van der Most, Peter J and Verweij, Niek and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wallentin, Lars and Waterworth, Dawn M and White, Harvey D and Wilson, James G and Wong, Tien-Yin and Woodward, Mark and Yang, Qiong and Yasuda, Masayuki and Yerges-Armstrong, Laura M and Zhang, Yan and Snieder, Harold and Wanner, Christoph and B{\"o}ger, Carsten A and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Kronenberg, Florian and Pattaro, Cristian and Heid, Iris M} } @article {8655, title = {Metabolites Associated with Walking Ability Among the Oldest Old from the CHS All Stars Study.}, journal = {J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci}, volume = {75}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 11 13}, pages = {2371-2378}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Low walking ability is highly prevalent with advancing age and predicts major health outcomes. Metabolomics may help to better characterize differences in walking ability among older adults, providing insight into potentially altered molecular processes underlying age-related decline in functioning. We sought to identify metabolites and metabolic pathways associated with high versus low walking ability among 120 participants ages 79-95 from the CHS All Stars study.

METHODS: Using a nested case-control design, 60 randomly selected participants with low walking ability were matched one-to-one on age, gender, race, and fasting time with 60 participants with high walking ability. High versus low walking ability was defined as being in the best versus worst tertiles for both gait speed (>=0.9 vs <0.7 m/s) and the Walking Ability Index (7-9 vs 0-1). Using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, 569 metabolites were identified in overnight-fasting plasma.

RESULTS: Ninety-six metabolites were associated with walking ability, where 24\% were triacylglycerols. Triacylglycerols that were higher among those with high walking ability consisted mostly of polyunsaturated fatty acids, whereas triacylglycerols that were lower among those with high walking ability consisted mostly of saturated or monounsaturated fatty acids. Body composition partly explained associations between some metabolites and walking ability. Proline and arginine metabolism was a top pathway associated with walking ability.

CONCLUSION: These results may partly reflect pathways of modifiable risk factors, including excess dietary lipids and lack of physical activity, contributing to obesity and further alterations in metabolic pathways that lead to age-related decline in walking ability in this older adult cohort.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Case-Control Studies, Female, Geriatric Assessment, Humans, Male, Metabolomics, Risk Factors, Walking, Walking Speed}, issn = {1758-535X}, doi = {10.1093/gerona/glaa030}, author = {Marron, Megan M and Wendell, Stacy G and Boudreau, Robert M and Clish, Clary B and Santanasto, Adam J and Tseng, George C and Zmuda, Joseph M and Newman, Anne B} } @article {8494, title = {{Mitochondrial DNA copy number and incident atrial fibrillation}, journal = {BMC Med}, volume = {18}, year = {2020}, month = {Sep}, pages = {246}, abstract = {Mechanistic studies suggest that mitochondria DNA (mtDNA) dysfunction may be associated with increased risk of atrial fibrillation (AF). The association between mtDNA copy number (mtDNA-CN) and incident AF in the general population, however, remains unknown.\ We conducted prospective analyses of 19,709 participants from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC), the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), and the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). mtDNA-CN from the peripheral blood was calculated from probe intensities on the Affymetrix Genome-Wide Human single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) Array 6.0 in ARIC and MESA and from multiplexed real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) in CHS. Incident AF cases were identified through electrocardiograms, review of hospital discharge codes, Medicare claims, and death certificates.\ The median follow-up time was 21.4 years in ARIC, 12.9 years in MESA, and 11.0 years in CHS, during which 4021 participants developed incident atrial fibrillation (1761 in ARIC, 790 in MESA, and 1470 in CHS). In fully adjusted models, participants with the lowest quintile of mitochondria DNA copy number had an overall 13\% increased risk (95\% CI 1 to 27\%) of incident atrial fibrillation compared to those with the highest quintile. Dose-response spline analysis also showed an inverse association between mitochondria DNA copy number and hazard for atrial fibrillation for all three cohorts. These associations were consistent across subgroups.\ Mitochondria DNA copy number was inversely associated with the risk of AF independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors. These findings implicate mitochondria DNA copy number as a novel risk factor for atrial fibrillation. Further research is warranted to understand the underlying mechanisms and to evaluate the role of mitochondria DNA copy number in the management of atrial fibrillation risk.}, author = {Zhao, D. and Bartz, T. M. and Sotoodehnia, N. and Post, W. S. and Heckbert, S. R. and Alonso, A. and Longchamps, R. J. and Castellani, C. A. and Hong, Y. S. and Rotter, J. I. and Lin, H. J. and O{\textquoteright}Rourke, B. and Pankratz, N. and Lane, J. A. and Yang, S. Y. and Guallar, E. and Arking, D. E.} } @article {8480, title = {Mitochondrial DNA copy number can influence mortality and cardiovascular disease via methylation of nuclear DNA CpGs.}, journal = {Genome Med}, volume = {12}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 Sep 28}, pages = {84}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNA-CN) has been associated with a variety of aging-related diseases, including all-cause mortality. However, the mechanism by which mtDNA-CN influences disease is not currently understood. One such mechanism may be through regulation of nuclear gene expression via the modification of nuclear DNA (nDNA) methylation.

METHODS: To investigate this hypothesis, we assessed the relationship between mtDNA-CN and nDNA methylation in 2507 African American (AA) and European American (EA) participants from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. To validate our findings, we assayed an additional 2528 participants from the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) (N = 533) and Framingham Heart Study (FHS) (N = 1995). We further assessed the effect of experimental modification of mtDNA-CN through knockout of TFAM, a regulator of mtDNA replication, via CRISPR-Cas9.

RESULTS: Thirty-four independent CpGs were associated with mtDNA-CN at genome-wide significance (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10). Meta-analysis across all cohorts identified six mtDNA-CN-associated CpGs at genome-wide significance (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10). Additionally, over half of these CpGs were associated with phenotypes known to be associated with mtDNA-CN, including coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease, and mortality. Experimental modification of mtDNA-CN demonstrated that modulation of mtDNA-CN results in changes in nDNA methylation and gene expression of specific CpGs and nearby transcripts. Strikingly, the "neuroactive ligand receptor interaction" KEGG pathway was found to be highly overrepresented in the ARIC cohort (P = 5.24 {\texttimes} 10), as well as the TFAM knockout methylation (P =~4.41 {\texttimes} 10) and expression (P =~4.30 {\texttimes} 10) studies.

CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that changes in mtDNA-CN influence nDNA methylation at specific loci and result in differential expression of specific genes that may impact human health and disease via altered cell signaling.

}, issn = {1756-994X}, doi = {10.1186/s13073-020-00778-7}, author = {Castellani, Christina A and Longchamps, Ryan J and Sumpter, Jason A and Newcomb, Charles E and Lane, John A and Grove, Megan L and Bressler, Jan and Brody, Jennifer A and Floyd, James S and Bartz, Traci M and Taylor, Kent D and Wang, Penglong and Tin, Adrienne and Coresh, Josef and Pankow, James S and Fornage, Myriam and Guallar, Eliseo and O{\textquoteright}Rourke, Brian and Pankratz, Nathan and Liu, Chunyu and Levy, Daniel and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Boerwinkle, Eric and Arking, Dan E} } @article {8368, title = {Multi-ancestry GWAS of the electrocardiographic PR interval identifies 202 loci underlying cardiac conduction.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {11}, year = {2020}, month = {2020 May 21}, pages = {2542}, abstract = {

The electrocardiographic PR interval reflects atrioventricular conduction, and is associated with conduction abnormalities, pacemaker implantation, atrial fibrillation (AF), and cardiovascular mortality. Here we report a multi-ancestry (N = 293,051) genome-wide association meta-analysis for the PR interval, discovering 202 loci of which 141 have not previously been reported. Variants at identified loci increase the percentage of heritability explained, from 33.5\% to 62.6\%. We observe enrichment for cardiac muscle developmental/contractile and cytoskeletal genes, highlighting key regulation processes for atrioventricular conduction. Additionally, 8 loci not previously reported harbor genes underlying inherited arrhythmic syndromes and/or cardiomyopathies suggesting a role for these genes in cardiovascular pathology in the general population. We show that polygenic predisposition to PR interval duration is an endophenotype for cardiovascular disease, including distal conduction disease, AF, and atrioventricular pre-excitation. These findings advance our understanding of the polygenic basis of cardiac conduction, and the genetic relationship between PR interval duration and cardiovascular disease.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-020-15706-x}, author = {Ntalla, Ioanna and Weng, Lu-Chen and Cartwright, James H and Hall, Amelia Weber and Sveinbjornsson, Gardar and Tucker, Nathan R and Choi, Seung Hoan and Chaffin, Mark D and Roselli, Carolina and Barnes, Michael R and Mifsud, Borbala and Warren, Helen R and Hayward, Caroline and Marten, Jonathan and Cranley, James J and Concas, Maria Pina and Gasparini, Paolo and Boutin, Thibaud and Kolcic, Ivana and Polasek, Ozren and Rudan, Igor and Araujo, Nathalia M and Lima-Costa, Maria Fernanda and Ribeiro, Antonio Luiz P and Souza, Renan P and Tarazona-Santos, Eduardo and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Ingelsson, Erik and Mahajan, Anubha and Morris, Andrew P and del Greco M, Fabiola and Foco, Luisa and G{\"o}gele, Martin and Hicks, Andrew A and Cook, James P and Lind, Lars and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Nelson, Christopher P and Riaz, Muhammad B and Samani, Nilesh J and Sinagra, Gianfranco and Ulivi, Sheila and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Mishra, Pashupati P and Mononen, Nina and Nikus, Kjell and Caulfield, Mark J and Dominiczak, Anna and Padmanabhan, Sandosh and Montasser, May E and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff R and Ryan, Kathleen and Shuldiner, Alan R and Aeschbacher, Stefanie and Conen, David and Risch, Lorenz and Th{\'e}riault, S{\'e}bastien and Hutri-K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Nina and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Raitakari, Olli T and Barnes, Catriona L K and Campbell, Harry and Joshi, Peter K and Wilson, James F and Isaacs, Aaron and Kors, Jan A and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Huang, Paul L and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Harris, Tamara B and Launer, Lenore J and Smith, Albert V and Bottinger, Erwin P and Loos, Ruth J F and Nadkarni, Girish N and Preuss, Michael H and Correa, Adolfo and Mei, Hao and Wilson, James and Meitinger, Thomas and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, Martina and Peters, Annette and Waldenberger, Melanie and Mangino, Massimo and Spector, Timothy D and Rienstra, Michiel and van de Vegte, Yordi J and van der Harst, Pim and Verweij, Niek and K{\"a}{\"a}b, Stefan and Schramm, Katharina and Sinner, Moritz F and Strauch, Konstantin and Cutler, Michael J and Fatkin, Diane and London, Barry and Olesen, Morten and Roden, Dan M and Benjamin Shoemaker, M and Gustav Smith, J and Biggs, Mary L and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Psaty, Bruce M and Rice, Kenneth and Sotoodehnia, Nona and De Grandi, Alessandro and Fuchsberger, Christian and Pattaro, Cristian and Pramstaller, Peter P and Ford, Ian and Wouter Jukema, J and Macfarlane, Peter W and Trompet, Stella and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Felix, Stephan B and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and Weiss, Stefan and Havulinna, Aki S and Jula, Antti and S{\"a}{\"a}ksj{\"a}rvi, Katri and Salomaa, Veikko and Guo, Xiuqing and Heckbert, Susan R and Lin, Henry J and Rotter, Jerome I and Taylor, Kent D and Yao, Jie and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and Maan, Arie C and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Noordam, Raymond and Cucca, Francesco and Ding, Jun and Lakatta, Edward G and Qian, Yong and Tarasov, Kirill V and Levy, Daniel and Lin, Honghuang and Newton-Cheh, Christopher H and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Murray, Alison D and Porteous, David J and Smith, Blair H and Stricker, Bruno H and Uitterlinden, Andre and van den Berg, Marten E and Haessler, Jeffrey and Jackson, Rebecca D and Kooperberg, Charles and Peters, Ulrike and Reiner, Alexander P and Whitsel, Eric A and Alonso, Alvaro and Arking, Dan E and Boerwinkle, Eric and Ehret, Georg B and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Avery, Christy L and Gogarten, Stephanie M and Kerr, Kathleen F and Laurie, Cathy C and Seyerle, Amanda A and Stilp, Adrienne and Assa, Solmaz and Abdullah Said, M and Yldau van der Ende, M and Lambiase, Pier D and Orini, Michele and Ramirez, Julia and Van Duijvenboden, Stefan and Arnar, David O and Gudbjartsson, Daniel F and Holm, Hilma and Sulem, Patrick and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Thorolfsdottir, Rosa B and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Benjamin, Emelia J and Tinker, Andrew and Stefansson, Kari and Ellinor, Patrick T and Jamshidi, Yalda and Lubitz, Steven A and Munroe, Patricia B} } @article {9002, title = {Meta-analyses identify DNA methylation associated with kidney function and damage.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 12 09}, pages = {7174}, abstract = {

Chronic kidney disease is a major public health burden. Elevated urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio is a measure of kidney damage, and used to diagnose and stage chronic kidney disease. To extend the knowledge on regulatory mechanisms related to kidney function and disease, we conducted a blood-based epigenome-wide association study for estimated glomerular filtration rate (n = 33,605) and urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (n = 15,068) and detected 69 and seven CpG sites where DNA methylation was associated with the respective trait. The majority of these findings showed directionally consistent associations with the respective clinical outcomes chronic kidney disease and moderately increased albuminuria. Associations of DNA methylation with kidney function, such as CpGs at JAZF1, PELI1 and CHD2 were validated in kidney tissue. Methylation at PHRF1, LDB2, CSRNP1 and IRF5 indicated causal effects on kidney function. Enrichment analyses revealed pathways related to hemostasis and blood cell migration for estimated glomerular filtration rate, and immune cell activation and response for urinary albumin-to-creatinineratio-associated CpGs.

}, keywords = {Adult, Aged, CpG Islands, DNA Methylation, Female, Glomerular Filtration Rate, Humans, Interferon Regulatory Factors, Kidney, Kidney Function Tests, LIM Domain Proteins, Male, Membrane Proteins, Middle Aged, Renal Insufficiency, Chronic, Transcription Factors}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-021-27234-3}, author = {Schlosser, Pascal and Tin, Adrienne and Matias-Garcia, Pamela R and Thio, Chris H L and Joehanes, Roby and Liu, Hongbo and Weihs, Antoine and Yu, Zhi and Hoppmann, Anselm and Grundner-Culemann, Franziska and Min, Josine L and Adeyemo, Adebowale A and Agyemang, Charles and Arnl{\"o}v, Johan and Aziz, Nasir A and Baccarelli, Andrea and Bochud, Murielle and Brenner, Hermann and Breteler, Monique M B and Carmeli, Cristian and Chaker, Layal and Chambers, John C and Cole, Shelley A and Coresh, Josef and Corre, Tanguy and Correa, Adolfo and Cox, Simon R and de Klein, Niek and Delgado, Graciela E and Domingo-Relloso, Arce and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Ekici, Arif B and Endlich, Karlhans and Evans, Kathryn L and Floyd, James S and Fornage, Myriam and Franke, Lude and Fraszczyk, Eliza and Gao, Xu and G{\`a}o, Xin and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Ghasemi, Sahar and Gieger, Christian and Greenland, Philip and Grove, Megan L and Harris, Sarah E and Hemani, Gibran and Henneman, Peter and Herder, Christian and Horvath, Steve and Hou, Lifang and Hurme, Mikko A and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kasela, Silva and Kleber, Marcus E and Koenig, Wolfgang and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kramer, Holly and Kronenberg, Florian and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Lind, Lars and Liu, Dan and Liu, Yongmei and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Lohman, Kurt and Lorkowski, Stefan and Lu, Ake T and Marioni, Riccardo E and M{\"a}rz, Winfried and McCartney, Daniel L and Meeks, Karlijn A C and Milani, Lili and Mishra, Pashupati P and Nauck, Matthias and Navas-Acien, Ana and Nowak, Christoph and Peters, Annette and Prokisch, Holger and Psaty, Bruce M and Raitakari, Olli T and Ratliff, Scott M and Reiner, Alex P and Rosas, Sylvia E and Sch{\"o}ttker, Ben and Schwartz, Joel and Sedaghat, Sanaz and Smith, Jennifer A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Stocker, Hannah R and Stringhini, Silvia and Sundstr{\"o}m, Johan and Swenson, Brenton R and Tellez-Plaza, Maria and van Meurs, Joyce B J and van Vliet-Ostaptchouk, Jana V and Venema, Andrea and Verweij, Niek and Walker, Rosie M and Wielscher, Matthias and Winkelmann, Juliane and Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H R and Zhao, Wei and Zheng, Yinan and Loh, Marie and Snieder, Harold and Levy, Daniel and Waldenberger, Melanie and Susztak, Katalin and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Teumer, Alexander} } @article {8789, title = {Meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies of carotid intima-media thickness.}, journal = {Eur J Epidemiol}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Jun 06}, abstract = {

Common carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) is an index of subclinical atherosclerosis that is associated with ischemic stroke and coronary artery disease (CAD). We undertook a cross-sectional epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) of measures of cIMT in 6400 individuals. Mendelian randomization analysis was applied to investigate the potential causal role of DNA methylation in the link between atherosclerotic cardiovascular risk factors and cIMT or clinical cardiovascular disease. The CpG site cg05575921 was associated with cIMT (beta = -0.0264, p value = 3.5 {\texttimes} 10) in the discovery panel and was replicated in replication panel (beta = -0.07, p value = 0.005). This CpG is located at chr5:81649347 in the intron 3 of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor repressor gene (AHRR). Our results indicate that DNA methylation at cg05575921 might be in the pathway between smoking, cIMT and stroke. Moreover, in a region-based analysis, 34 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were identified of which a DMR upstream of ALOX12 showed the strongest association with cIMT (p value = 1.4 {\texttimes} 10). In conclusion, our study suggests that DNA methylation may play a role in the link between cardiovascular risk factors, cIMT and clinical cardiovascular disease.

}, issn = {1573-7284}, doi = {10.1007/s10654-021-00759-z}, author = {Portilla-Fern{\'a}ndez, Eliana and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Wilson, Rory and Maddock, Jane and Hill, W David and Teumer, Alexander and Mishra, Pashupati P and Brody, Jennifer A and Joehanes, Roby and Ligthart, Symen and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Kavousi, Maryam and Roks, Anton J M and Danser, A H Jan and Levy, Daniel and Peters, Annette and Ghasemi, Sahar and Schminke, Ulf and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Grabe, Hans J and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Hurme, Mikko A and Bartz, Traci M and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Bis, Joshua C and Thiery, Joachim and Koenig, Wolfgang and Ong, Ken K and Bell, Jordana T and Meisinger, Christine and Wardlaw, Joanna M and Starr, John M and Seissler, Jochen and Then, Cornelia and Rathmann, Wolfgang and Ikram, M Arfan and Psaty, Bruce M and Raitakari, Olli T and V{\"o}lzke, Henry and Deary, Ian J and Wong, Andrew and Waldenberger, Melanie and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Dehghan, Abbas} } @article {9005, title = {Multi-Ancestry Genome-wide Association Study Accounting for Gene-Psychosocial Factor Interactions Identifies Novel Loci for Blood Pressure Traits.}, journal = {HGG Adv}, volume = {2}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Jan 14}, abstract = {

Psychological and social factors are known to influence blood pressure (BP) and risk of hypertension and associated cardiovascular diseases. To identify novel BP loci, we carried out genome-wide association meta-analyses of systolic, diastolic, pulse, and mean arterial BP taking into account the interaction effects of genetic variants with three psychosocial factors: depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and social support. Analyses were performed using a two-stage design in a sample of up to 128,894 adults from 5 ancestry groups. In the combined meta-analyses of Stages 1 and 2, we identified 59 loci (p value <5e-8), including nine novel BP loci. The novel associations were observed mostly with pulse pressure, with fewer observed with mean arterial pressure. Five novel loci were identified in African ancestry, and all but one showed patterns of interaction with at least one psychosocial factor. Functional annotation of the novel loci supports a major role for genes implicated in the immune response (), synaptic function and neurotransmission (), as well as genes previously implicated in neuropsychiatric or stress-related disorders (). These findings underscore the importance of considering psychological and social factors in gene discovery for BP, especially in non-European populations.

}, issn = {2666-2477}, doi = {10.1016/j.xhgg.2020.100013}, author = {Sun, Daokun and Richard, Melissa and Musani, Solomon K and Sung, Yun Ju and Winkler, Thomas W and Schwander, Karen and Chai, Jin Fang and Guo, Xiuqing and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Vojinovic, Dina and Aschard, Hugues and Bartz, Traci M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Brown, Michael R and Chitrala, Kumaraswamy and Hartwig, Fernando P and Horimoto, Andrea R V R and Liu, Yongmei and Manning, Alisa K and Noordam, Raymond and Smith, Albert V and Harris, Sarah E and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Nolte, Ilja M and Rauramaa, Rainer and van der Most, Peter J and Wang, Rujia and Ware, Erin B and Weiss, Stefan and Wen, Wanqing and Yanek, Lisa R and Arking, Dan E and Arnett, Donna K and Barac, Ana and Boerwinkle, Eric and Broeckel, Ulrich and Chakravarti, Aravinda and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Cupples, L Adrienne and Davigulus, Martha L and de Las Fuentes, Lisa and de Mutsert, Ren{\'e}e and de Vries, Paul S and Delaney, Joseph A C and Roux, Ana V Diez and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Faul, Jessica D and Fretts, Amanda M and Gallo, Linda C and Grabe, Hans J{\"o}rgen and Gu, C Charles and Harris, Tamara B and Hartman, Catharina C A and Heikkinen, Sami and Ikram, M Arfan and Isasi, Carmen and Johnson, W Craig and Jonas, Jost Bruno and Kaplan, Robert C and Komulainen, Pirjo and Krieger, Jose E and Levy, Daniel and Liu, Jianjun and Lohman, Kurt and Luik, Annemarie I and Martin, Lisa W and Meitinger, Thomas and Milaneschi, Yuri and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff R and Palmas, Walter R and Peters, Annette and Peyser, Patricia A and Pulkki-R{\r a}back, Laura and Raffel, Leslie J and Reiner, Alex P and Rice, Kenneth and Robinson, Jennifer G and Rosendaal, Frits R and Schmidt, Carsten Oliver and Schreiner, Pamela J and Schwettmann, Lars and Shikany, James M and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Sidney, Stephen and Sims, Mario and Smith, Jennifer A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Strauch, Konstantin and Tai, E Shyong and Taylor, Kent and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Waldenberger, Melanie and Wee, Hwee-Lin and Wei, Wen-Bin and Wilson, Gregory and Xuan, Deng and Yao, Jie and Zeng, Donglin and Zhao, Wei and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Zonderman, Alan B and Becker, Diane M and Deary, Ian J and Gieger, Christian and Lakka, Timo A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and North, Kari E and Oldehinkel, Albertine J and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Snieder, Harold and Wang, Ya-Xing and Weir, David R and Zheng, Wei and Evans, Michele K and Gauderman, W James and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Horta, Bernardo L and Liu, Ching-Ti and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Morrison, Alanna C and Pereira, Alexandre C and Psaty, Bruce M and Amin, Najaf and Fox, Ervin R and Kooperberg, Charles and Sim, Xueling and Bierut, Laura and Rotter, Jerome I and Kardia, Sharon L R and Franceschini, Nora and Rao, Dabeeru C and Fornage, Myriam} } @article {8714, title = {Multi-ancestry genome-wide gene-sleep interactions identify novel loci for blood pressure.}, journal = {Mol Psychiatry}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Apr 15}, abstract = {

Long and short sleep duration are associated with elevated blood pressure (BP), possibly through effects on molecular pathways that influence neuroendocrine and vascular systems. To gain new insights into the genetic basis of sleep-related BP variation, we performed genome-wide gene by short or long sleep duration interaction analyses on four BP traits (systolic BP, diastolic BP, mean arterial pressure, and pulse pressure) across five ancestry groups in two stages using 2 degree of freedom (df) joint test followed by 1df test of interaction effects. Primary multi-ancestry analysis in 62,969 individuals in stage 1 identified three novel gene by sleep interactions that were replicated in an additional 59,296 individuals in stage 2 (stage 1 + 2 P < 5 {\texttimes} 10), including rs7955964 (FIGNL2/ANKRD33) that increases BP among long sleepers, and rs73493041 (SNORA26/C9orf170) and rs10406644 (KCTD15/LSM14A) that increase BP among short sleepers (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10). Secondary ancestry-specific analysis identified another novel gene by long sleep interaction at rs111887471 (TRPC3/KIAA1109) in individuals of African ancestry (P = 2 {\texttimes} 10). Combined stage 1 and 2 analyses additionally identified significant gene by long sleep interactions at 10 loci including MKLN1 and RGL3/ELAVL3 previously associated with BP, and significant gene by short sleep interactions at 10 loci including C2orf43 previously associated with BP (P < 10). 2df test also identified novel loci for BP after modeling sleep that has known functions in sleep-wake regulation, nervous and cardiometabolic systems. This study indicates that sleep and primary mechanisms regulating BP may interact to elevate BP level, suggesting novel insights into sleep-related BP regulation.

}, issn = {1476-5578}, doi = {10.1038/s41380-021-01087-0}, author = {Wang, Heming and Noordam, Raymond and Cade, Brian E and Schwander, Karen and Winkler, Thomas W and Lee, Jiwon and Sung, Yun Ju and Bentley, Amy R and Manning, Alisa K and Aschard, Hugues and Kilpel{\"a}inen, Tuomas O and Ilkov, Marjan and Brown, Michael R and Horimoto, Andrea R and Richard, Melissa and Bartz, Traci M and Vojinovic, Dina and Lim, Elise and Nierenberg, Jovia L and Liu, Yongmei and Chitrala, Kumaraswamynaidu and Rankinen, Tuomo and Musani, Solomon K and Franceschini, Nora and Rauramaa, Rainer and Alver, Maris and Zee, Phyllis C and Harris, Sarah E and van der Most, Peter J and Nolte, Ilja M and Munroe, Patricia B and Palmer, Nicholette D and Kuhnel, Brigitte and Weiss, Stefan and Wen, Wanqing and Hall, Kelly A and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and O{\textquoteright}Connell, Jeff and Eiriksdottir, Gudny and Launer, Lenore J and de Vries, Paul S and Arking, Dan E and Chen, Han and Boerwinkle, Eric and Krieger, Jose E and Schreiner, Pamela J and Sidney, Stephen and Shikany, James M and Rice, Kenneth and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Gharib, Sina A and Bis, Joshua C and Luik, Annemarie I and Ikram, M Arfan and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Amin, Najaf and Xu, Hanfei and Levy, Daniel and He, Jiang and Lohman, Kurt K and Zonderman, Alan B and Rice, Treva K and Sims, Mario and Wilson, Gregory and Sofer, Tamar and Rich, Stephen S and Palmas, Walter and Yao, Jie and Guo, Xiuqing and Rotter, Jerome I and Biermasz, Nienke R and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Martin, Lisa W and Barac, Ana and Wallace, Robert B and Gottlieb, Daniel J and Komulainen, Pirjo and Heikkinen, Sami and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Milani, Lili and Metspalu, Andres and Starr, John M and Milaneschi, Yuri and Waken, R J and Gao, Chuan and Waldenberger, Melanie and Peters, Annette and Strauch, Konstantin and Meitinger, Thomas and Roenneberg, Till and V{\"o}lker, Uwe and D{\"o}rr, Marcus and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Mukherjee, Sutapa and Hillman, David R and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Wagenknecht, Lynne E and Gieger, Christian and Grabe, Hans J and Zheng, Wei and Palmer, Lyle J and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Morrison, Alanna C and Pereira, Alexandre C and Fornage, Myriam and Psaty, Bruce M and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Liu, Ching-Ti and Kelly, Tanika N and Evans, Michele K and Bouchard, Claude and Fox, Ervin R and Kooperberg, Charles and Zhu, Xiaofeng and Lakka, Timo A and Esko, T{\~o}nu and North, Kari E and Deary, Ian J and Snieder, Harold and Penninx, Brenda W J H and Gauderman, W James and Rao, Dabeeru C and Redline, Susan and van Heemst, Diana} } @article {8781, title = {{A multi-ethnic epigenome-wide association study of leukocyte DNA methylation and blood lipids}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {12}, year = {2021}, month = {06}, pages = {3987}, abstract = {10.1038/s41467-021-23899-yHere we examine the association between DNA methylation in circulating leukocytes and blood lipids in a multi-ethnic sample of 16,265 subjects. We identify 148, 35, and 4 novel associations among Europeans, African Americans, and Hispanics, respectively, and an additional 186 novel associations through a trans-ethnic meta-analysis. We observe a high concordance in the direction of effects across racial/ethnic groups, a high correlation of effect sizes between high-density lipoprotein and triglycerides, a modest overlap of associations with epigenome-wide association studies of other cardio-metabolic traits, and a largely non-overlap with lipid loci identified to date through genome-wide association studies. Thirty CpGs reached significance in at least 2 racial/ethnic groups including 7 that showed association with the expression of an annotated gene. CpGs annotated to CPT1A showed evidence of being influenced by triglycerides levels. DNA methylation levels of circulating leukocytes show robust and consistent association with blood lipid levels across multiple racial/ethnic groups.}, author = {Jhun, M. A. and Mendelson, M. and Wilson, R. and Gondalia, R. and Joehanes, R. and Salfati, E. and Zhao, X. and Braun, K. V. E. and Do, A. N. and Hedman, {\r A}. K. and Zhang, T. and Carnero-Montoro, E. and Shen, J. and Bartz, T. M. and Brody, J. A. and Montasser, M. E. and O{\textquoteright}Connell, J. R. and Yao, C. and Xia, R. and Boerwinkle, E. and Grove, M. and Guan, W. and Liliane, P. and Singmann, P. and M{\"u}ller-Nurasyid, M. and Meitinger, T. and Gieger, C. and Peters, A. and Zhao, W. and Ware, E. B. and Smith, J. A. and Dhana, K. and van Meurs, J. and Uitterlinden, A. and Ikram, M. A. and Ghanbari, M. and Zhi, D. and Gustafsson, S. and Lind, L. and Li, S. and Sun, D. and Spector, T. D. and Chen, Y. I. and Damcott, C. and Shuldiner, A. R. and Absher, D. M. and Horvath, S. and Tsao, P. S. and Kardia, S. and Psaty, B. M. and Sotoodehnia, N. and Bell, J. T. and Ingelsson, E. and Chen, W. and Dehghan, A. and Arnett, D. K. and Waldenberger, M. and Hou, L. and Whitsel, E. A. and Baccarelli, A. and Levy, D. and Fornage, M. and Irvin, M. R. and Assimes, T. L.} } @article {8832, title = {Multiethnic Genome-Wide Association Study of Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Individuals With Type 2 Diabetes.}, journal = {Circ Genom Precis Med}, volume = {14}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Aug}, pages = {e003258}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery calcification (CAC) and carotid artery intima-media thickness (cIMT) are measures of subclinical atherosclerosis in asymptomatic individuals and strong risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is an independent cardiovascular disease risk factor that accelerates atherosclerosis.

METHODS: We performed meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies in up to 2500 T2D individuals of European ancestry (EA) and 1590 T2D individuals of African ancestry with or without exclusion of prevalent cardiovascular disease, for CAC measured by cardiac computed tomography, and 3608 individuals of EA and 838 individuals of African ancestry with T2D for cIMT measured by ultrasonography within the CHARGE (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology) Consortium.

RESULTS: We replicated 2 loci (rs9369640 and rs9349379 near and rs10757278 near ) for CAC and one locus for cIMT (rs7412 and rs445925 near ) that were previously reported in the general EA populations. We identified one novel CAC locus (rs8000449 near at 13q13.3) at =2.0{\texttimes}10 in EA. No additional loci were identified with the meta-analyses of EA and African ancestry. The expression quantitative trait loci analysis with nearby expressed genes derived from arterial wall and metabolic tissues from the Genotype-Tissue Expression project pinpoints , encoding a matricellular protein involved in bone formation and bone matrix organization, as the potential candidate gene at this locus. In addition, we found significant associations (<3.1{\texttimes}10) for 3 previously reported coronary artery disease loci for these subclinical atherosclerotic phenotypes (rs2891168 near and rs11170820 near for CAC, and rs7412 near for cIMT).

CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide potential biological mechanisms that could link CAC and cIMT to increased cardiovascular disease risk in individuals with T2D.

}, issn = {2574-8300}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCGEN.120.003258}, author = {Lu, Yingchang and Dimitrov, Latchezar and Chen, Shyh-Huei and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bis, Joshua C and Feitosa, Mary F and Lu, Lingyi and Kavousi, Maryam and Raffield, Laura M and Smith, Albert V and Wang, Lihua and Weiss, Stefan and Yao, Jie and Zhu, Jiaxi and Gudmundsson, Elias F and Gudmundsdottir, Valborg and Bos, Daniel and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Ikram, M Arfan and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Taylor, Kent D and Budoff, Matthew J and Gislason, Gauti K and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and An, Ping and Franceschini, Nora and Freedman, Barry I and Fu, Yi-Ping and Guo, Xiuqing and Heiss, Gerardo and Kardia, Sharon L R and Wilson, James G and Langefeld, Carl D and Schminke, Ulf and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Lange, Leslie A and Peyser, Patricia A and Gudnason, Vilmundur G and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and Bowden, Donald W and Ng, Maggie C Y} } @article {8908, title = {is mutated in clonal hematopoiesis and myelodysplastic syndromes and impacts RNA splicing.}, journal = {Blood Cancer Discov}, volume = {2}, year = {2021}, month = {2021 Sep}, pages = {500-517}, abstract = {

Clonal hematopoiesis results from somatic mutations in cancer driver genes in hematopoietic stem cells. We sought to identify novel drivers of clonal expansion using an unbiased analysis of sequencing data from 84,683 persons and identified common mutations in the 5-methylcytosine reader, , as well as in , , and . We also identified these mutations at low frequency in myelodysplastic syndrome patients. edited mouse hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells exhibited a competitive advantage and increased genome-wide intron retention. mutations potentially link DNA methylation and RNA splicing, the two most commonly mutated pathways in clonal hematopoiesis and MDS.

}, issn = {2643-3249}, doi = {10.1158/2643-3230.BCD-20-0224}, author = {Beauchamp, Ellen M and Leventhal, Matthew and Bernard, Elsa and Hoppe, Emma R and Todisco, Gabriele and Creignou, Maria and Gall{\`\i}, Anna and Castellano, Cecilia A and McConkey, Marie and Tarun, Akansha and Wong, Waihay and Schenone, Monica and Stanclift, Caroline and Tanenbaum, Benjamin and Malolepsza, Edyta and Nilsson, Bj{\"o}rn and Bick, Alexander G and Weinstock, Joshua S and Miller, Mendy and Niroula, Abhishek and Dunford, Andrew and Taylor-Weiner, Amaro and Wood, Timothy and Barbera, Alex and Anand, Shankara and Psaty, Bruce M and Desai, Pinkal and Cho, Michael H and Johnson, Andrew D and Loos, Ruth and MacArthur, Daniel G and Lek, Monkol and Neuberg, Donna S and Lage, Kasper and Carr, Steven A and Hellstrom-Lindberg, Eva and Malcovati, Luca and Papaemmanuil, Elli and Stewart, Chip and Getz, Gad and Bradley, Robert K and Jaiswal, Siddhartha and Ebert, Benjamin L} } @article {9090, title = {Monocyte subsets, T cell activation profiles, and stroke in men and women: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Cardiovascular Health Study.}, journal = {Atherosclerosis}, volume = {351}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 06}, pages = {18-25}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Despite mechanistic data implicating unresolving inflammation in stroke pathogenesis, data regarding circulating immune cell phenotypes - key determinants of inflammation propagation versus resolution - and incident stroke are lacking. Therefore, we aimed to comprehensively define associations of circulating immune phenotypes and activation profiles with incident stroke.

METHODS: We investigated circulating leukocyte phenotypes and activation profiles with incident adjudicated stroke in 2104 diverse adults from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) followed over a median of 16.6 years. Cryopreserved cells from the MESA baseline examination were thawed and myeloid and lymphoid lineage cell subsets were measured using polychromatic flow cytometry and intracellular cytokine activation staining. We analyzed multivariable-adjusted associations of cell phenotypes, as a proportion of parent cell subsets, with incident stroke (overall) and ischemic stroke using Cox regression models.

RESULTS: We observed associations of intermediate monocytes, early-activated CD4 T cells, and both CD4 and CD8 T cells producing interleukin-4 after cytokine stimulation (T and T, respectively) with higher risk for incident stroke; effect sizes ranged from 35\% to 62\% relative increases in risk for stroke. Meanwhile, differentiated and memory T cell phenotypes were associated with lower risk for incident stroke. In sex-stratified analyses, positive and negative associations were especially strong among men but null among women.

CONCLUSIONS: Circulating IL-4 producing T cells and intermediate monocytes were significantly associated with incident stroke over nearly two decades of follow-up. These associations were stronger among men and not among women. Further translational studies are warranted to define more precise targets for prognosis and intervention.

}, keywords = {Atherosclerosis, CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes, CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes, Cytokines, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Incidence, Inflammation, Interleukin-4, Ischemic Stroke, Lymphocyte Activation, Male, Monocytes, Stroke, T-Lymphocyte Subsets}, issn = {1879-1484}, doi = {10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2022.05.007}, author = {Feinstein, Matthew J and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Olson, Nels C and Doyle, Margaret F and Sitlani, Colleen M and Fohner, Alison E and Huber, Sally A and Floyd, James and Sinha, Arjun and Thorp, Edward B and Landay, Alan and Freiberg, Matthew S and Longstreth, William T and Tracy, Russell P and Psaty, Bruce M and Delaney, Joseph Ac} } @article {9038, title = {Monogenic and Polygenic Contributions to QTc Prolongation in the Population.}, journal = {Circulation}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Apr 07}, abstract = {

Rare sequence variation in genes underlying cardiac repolarization and common polygenic variation influence QT interval duration. However, current clinical genetic testing of individuals with unexplained QT prolongation is restricted to examination of monogenic rare variants. The recent emergence of large-scale biorepositories with sequence data enables examination of the joint contribution of rare and common variation to the QT interval in the population. We performed a genome wide association study (GWAS) of the QTc in 84,630 United Kingdom Biobank (UKB) participants and created a polygenic risk score (PRS). Among 26,976 participants with whole genome sequencing and electrocardiogram data in the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program, we identified 160 carriers of putative pathogenic rare variants in 10 genes known to be associated with the QT interval. We examined QTc associations with the PRS and with rare variants in TOPMed. Fifty-four independent loci were identified by GWAS in the UKB. Twenty-one loci were novel, of which 12 were replicated in TOPMed. The PRS comprising 1,110,494 common variants was significantly associated with the QTc in TOPMed (ΔQTc/ = 1.4 ms, 95\% CI 1.3 -1.5; p-value=1.1{\texttimes}10). Carriers of putative pathogenic rare variants had longer QTc than non-carriers (ΔQTc=10.9 ms [7.4-14.4]). 23.7\% of individuals with QTc>480 ms carried either a monogenic rare variant or had a PRS in the top decile (3.4\% monogenic, 21\% top decile of PRS). QTc duration in the population is influenced by both rare variants in genes underlying cardiac repolarization and polygenic risk, with a sizeable contribution from polygenic risk. Comprehensive assessment of the genetic determinants of QTc prolongation includes incorporation of both polygenic and monogenic risk.

}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.057261}, author = {Nauffal, Victor and Morrill, Valerie N and Jurgens, Sean J and Choi, Seung Hoan and Hall, Amelia W and Weng, Lu-Chen and Halford, Jennifer L and Austin-Tse, Christina and Haggerty, Christopher M and Harris, Stephanie L and Wong, Eugene K and Alonso, Alvaro and Arking, Dan E and Benjamin, Emelia J and Boerwinkle, Eric and Min, Yuan-I and Correa, Adolfo and Fornwalt, Brandon K and Heckbert, Susan R and Kooperberg, Charles and Lin, Henry J and Loos, Ruth J F and Rice, Kenneth M and Gupta, Namrata and Blackwell, Thomas W and Mitchell, Braxton D and Morrison, Alanna C and Psaty, Bruce M and Post, Wendy S and Redline, Susan and Rehm, Heidi L and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Soliman, Elsayed Z and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Lunetta, Kathryn L and Ellinor, Patrick T and Lubitz, Steven A} } @article {9104, title = {Multi-ancestry genetic study of type 2 diabetes highlights the power of diverse populations for discovery and translation.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {54}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 May}, pages = {560-572}, abstract = {

We assembled an ancestrally diverse collection of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in 180,834 affected individuals and 1,159,055 controls (48.9\% non-European descent) through the Diabetes Meta-Analysis of Trans-Ethnic association studies (DIAMANTE) Consortium. Multi-ancestry GWAS meta-analysis identified 237 loci attaining stringent genome-wide significance (P < 5 {\texttimes} 10), which were delineated to 338 distinct association signals. Fine-mapping of these signals was enhanced by the increased sample size and expanded population diversity of the multi-ancestry meta-analysis, which localized 54.4\% of T2D associations to a single variant with >50\% posterior probability. This improved fine-mapping enabled systematic assessment of candidate causal genes and molecular mechanisms through which T2D associations are mediated, laying the foundations for functional investigations. Multi-ancestry genetic risk scores enhanced transferability of T2D prediction across diverse populations. Our study provides a step toward more effective clinical translation of T2D GWAS to improve global health for all, irrespective of genetic background.

}, keywords = {Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Ethnicity, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Risk Factors}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-022-01058-3}, author = {Mahajan, Anubha and Spracklen, Cassandra N and Zhang, Weihua and Ng, Maggie C Y and Petty, Lauren E and Kitajima, Hidetoshi and Yu, Grace Z and R{\"u}eger, Sina and Speidel, Leo and Kim, Young Jin and Horikoshi, Momoko and Mercader, Josep M and Taliun, Daniel and Moon, Sanghoon and Kwak, Soo-Heon and Robertson, Neil R and Rayner, Nigel W and Loh, Marie and Kim, Bong-Jo and Chiou, Joshua and Miguel-Escalada, Irene and Della Briotta Parolo, Pietro and Lin, Kuang and Bragg, Fiona and Preuss, Michael H and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Nano, Jana and Guo, Xiuqing and Lamri, Amel and Nakatochi, Masahiro and Scott, Robert A and Lee, Jung-Jin and Huerta-Chagoya, Alicia and Graff, Mariaelisa and Chai, Jin-Fang and Parra, Esteban J and Yao, Jie and Bielak, Lawrence F and Tabara, Yasuharu and Hai, Yang and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Cook, James P and Kals, Mart and Grarup, Niels and Schmidt, Ellen M and Pan, Ian and Sofer, Tamar and Wuttke, Matthias and Sarnowski, Chloe and Gieger, Christian and Nousome, Darryl and Trompet, Stella and Long, Jirong and Sun, Meng and Tong, Lin and Chen, Wei-Min and Ahmad, Meraj and Noordam, Raymond and Lim, Victor J Y and Tam, Claudia H T and Joo, Yoonjung Yoonie and Chen, Chien-Hsiun and Raffield, Laura M and Lecoeur, C{\'e}cile and Prins, Bram Peter and Nicolas, Aude and Yanek, Lisa R and Chen, Guanjie and Jensen, Richard A and Tajuddin, Salman and Kabagambe, Edmond K and An, Ping and Xiang, Anny H and Choi, Hyeok Sun and Cade, Brian E and Tan, Jingyi and Flanagan, Jack and Abaitua, Fernando and Adair, Linda S and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Aguilar-Salinas, Carlos A and Akiyama, Masato and Anand, Sonia S and Bertoni, Alain and Bian, Zheng and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Brandslund, Ivan and Brody, Jennifer A and Brummett, Chad M and Buchanan, Thomas A and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Chan, Juliana C N and Chang, Li-Ching and Chee, Miao-Li and Chen, Ji and Chen, Shyh-Huei and Chen, Yuan-Tsong and Chen, Zhengming and Chuang, Lee-Ming and Cushman, Mary and Das, Swapan K and de Silva, H Janaka and Dedoussis, George and Dimitrov, Latchezar and Doumatey, Ayo P and Du, Shufa and Duan, Qing and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Emery, Leslie S and Evans, Daniel S and Evans, Michele K and Fischer, Krista and Floyd, James S and Ford, Ian and Fornage, Myriam and Franco, Oscar H and Frayling, Timothy M and Freedman, Barry I and Fuchsberger, Christian and Genter, Pauline and Gerstein, Hertzel C and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Gonz{\'a}lez-Villalpando, Clicerio and Gonzalez-Villalpando, Maria Elena and Goodarzi, Mark O and Gordon-Larsen, Penny and Gorkin, David and Gross, Myron and Guo, Yu and Hackinger, Sophie and Han, Sohee and Hattersley, Andrew T and Herder, Christian and Howard, Annie-Green and Hsueh, Willa and Huang, Mengna and Huang, Wei and Hung, Yi-Jen and Hwang, Mi Yeong and Hwu, Chii-Min and Ichihara, Sahoko and Ikram, Mohammad Arfan and Ingelsson, Martin and Islam, Md Tariqul and Isono, Masato and Jang, Hye-Mi and Jasmine, Farzana and Jiang, Guozhi and Jonas, Jost B and J{\o}rgensen, Marit E and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Kamatani, Yoichiro and Kandeel, Fouad R and Kasturiratne, Anuradhani and Katsuya, Tomohiro and Kaur, Varinderpal and Kawaguchi, Takahisa and Keaton, Jacob M and Kho, Abel N and Khor, Chiea-Chuen and Kibriya, Muhammad G and Kim, Duk-Hwan and Kohara, Katsuhiko and Kriebel, Jennifer and Kronenberg, Florian and Kuusisto, Johanna and L{\"a}ll, Kristi and Lange, Leslie A and Lee, Myung-Shik and Lee, Nanette R and Leong, Aaron and Li, Liming and Li, Yun and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Ligthart, Symen and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Ching-Ti and Liu, Jianjun and Locke, Adam E and Louie, Tin and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Luk, Andrea O and Luo, Xi and Lv, Jun and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Mamakou, Vasiliki and Mani, K Radha and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Morris, Andrew D and Nadkarni, Girish N and Nadler, Jerry L and Nalls, Michael A and Nayak, Uma and Nongmaithem, Suraj S and Ntalla, Ioanna and Okada, Yukinori and Orozco, Lorena and Patel, Sanjay R and Pereira, Mark A and Peters, Annette and Pirie, Fraser J and Porneala, Bianca and Prasad, Gauri and Preissl, Sebastian and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Reiner, Alexander P and Roden, Michael and Rohde, Rebecca and Roll, Kathryn and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Sander, Maike and Sandow, Kevin and Sattar, Naveed and Sch{\"o}nherr, Sebastian and Schurmann, Claudia and Shahriar, Mohammad and Shi, Jinxiu and Shin, Dong Mun and Shriner, Daniel and Smith, Jennifer A and So, Wing Yee and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Stilp, Adrienne M and Strauch, Konstantin and Suzuki, Ken and Takahashi, Atsushi and Taylor, Kent D and Thorand, Barbara and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tomlinson, Brian and Torres, Jason M and Tsai, Fuu-Jen and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Tusi{\'e}-Luna, Teresa and Udler, Miriam S and Valladares-Salgado, Adan and van Dam, Rob M and van Klinken, Jan B and Varma, Rohit and Vujkovic, Marijana and Wacher-Rodarte, Niels and Wheeler, Eleanor and Whitsel, Eric A and Wickremasinghe, Ananda R and van Dijk, Ko Willems and Witte, Daniel R and Yajnik, Chittaranjan S and Yamamoto, Ken and Yamauchi, Toshimasa and Yengo, Loic and Yoon, Kyungheon and Yu, Canqing and Yuan, Jian-Min and Yusuf, Salim and Zhang, Liang and Zheng, Wei and Raffel, Leslie J and Igase, Michiya and Ipp, Eli and Redline, Susan and Cho, Yoon Shin and Lind, Lars and Province, Michael A and Hanis, Craig L and Peyser, Patricia A and Ingelsson, Erik and Zonderman, Alan B and Psaty, Bruce M and Wang, Ya-Xing and Rotimi, Charles N and Becker, Diane M and Matsuda, Fumihiko and Liu, Yongmei and Zeggini, Eleftheria and Yokota, Mitsuhiro and Rich, Stephen S and Kooperberg, Charles and Pankow, James S and Engert, James C and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Froguel, Philippe and Wilson, James G and Sheu, Wayne H H and Kardia, Sharon L R and Wu, Jer-Yuarn and Hayes, M Geoffrey and Ma, Ronald C W and Wong, Tien-Yin and Groop, Leif and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Chandak, Giriraj R and Collins, Francis S and Bharadwaj, Dwaipayan and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Ahsan, Habibul and Motala, Ayesha A and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Park, Kyong-Soo and Jukema, J Wouter and Cruz, Miguel and McKean-Cowdin, Roberta and Grallert, Harald and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Bottinger, Erwin P and Dehghan, Abbas and Tai, E-Shyong and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Kato, Norihiro and Laakso, Markku and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Koh, Woon-Puay and Palmer, Colin N A and Liu, Simin and Abecasis, Goncalo and Kooner, Jaspal S and Loos, Ruth J F and North, Kari E and Haiman, Christopher A and Florez, Jose C and Saleheen, Danish and Hansen, Torben and Pedersen, Oluf and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Langenberg, Claudia and Wareham, Nicholas J and Maeda, Shiro and Kadowaki, Takashi and Lee, Juyoung and Millwood, Iona Y and Walters, Robin G and Stefansson, Kari and Myers, Simon R and Ferrer, Jorge and Gaulton, Kyle J and Meigs, James B and Mohlke, Karen L and Gloyn, Anna L and Bowden, Donald W and Below, Jennifer E and Chambers, John C and Sim, Xueling and Boehnke, Michael and Rotter, Jerome I and McCarthy, Mark I and Morris, Andrew P} } @article {9100, title = {A multi-ethnic polygenic risk score is associated with hypertension prevalence and progression throughout adulthood.}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {13}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Jun 21}, pages = {3549}, abstract = {

In a multi-stage analysis of 52,436 individuals aged 17-90 across diverse cohorts and biobanks, we train, test, and evaluate a polygenic risk score (PRS) for hypertension risk and progression. The PRS is trained using genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for systolic, diastolic blood pressure, and hypertension, respectively. For each trait, PRS is selected by optimizing the coefficient of variation (CV) across estimated effect sizes from multiple potential PRS using the same GWAS, after which the 3 trait-specific PRSs are combined via an unweighted sum called "PRSsum", forming the HTN-PRS. The HTN-PRS is associated with both prevalent and incident hypertension at 4-6 years of follow up. This association is further confirmed in age-stratified analysis. In an independent biobank of 40,201 individuals, the HTN-PRS is confirmed to be predictive of increased risk for coronary artery disease, ischemic stroke, type 2 diabetes, and chronic kidney disease.

}, keywords = {Adult, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Hypertension, Multifactorial Inheritance, Prevalence, Risk Factors}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-022-31080-2}, author = {Kurniansyah, Nuzulul and Goodman, Matthew O and Kelly, Tanika N and Elfassy, Tali and Wiggins, Kerri L and Bis, Joshua C and Guo, Xiuqing and Palmas, Walter and Taylor, Kent D and Lin, Henry J and Haessler, Jeffrey and Gao, Yan and Shimbo, Daichi and Smith, Jennifer A and Yu, Bing and Feofanova, Elena V and Smit, Roelof A J and Wang, Zhe and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Liu, Simin and Wassertheil-Smoller, Sylvia and Manson, JoAnn E and Lloyd-Jones, Donald M and Rich, Stephen S and Loos, Ruth J F and Redline, Susan and Correa, Adolfo and Kooperberg, Charles and Fornage, Myriam and Kaplan, Robert C and Psaty, Bruce M and Rotter, Jerome I and Arnett, Donna K and Morrison, Alanna C and Franceschini, Nora and Levy, Daniel and Sofer, Tamar} } @article {9254, title = {Multi-Scalar Data Integration Links Glomerular Angiopoietin-Tie Signaling Pathway Activation With Progression of Diabetic Kidney Disease.}, journal = {Diabetes}, volume = {71}, year = {2022}, month = {2022 Dec 01}, pages = {2664-2676}, abstract = {

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is the leading cause of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). Prognostic biomarkers reflective of underlying molecular mechanisms are critically needed for effective management of DKD. A three-marker panel was derived from a proteomics analysis of plasma samples by an unbiased machine learning approach from participants (N = 58) in the Clinical Phenotyping and Resource Biobank study. In combination with standard clinical parameters, this panel improved prediction of the composite outcome of ESKD or a 40\% decline in glomerular filtration rate. The panel was validated in an independent group (N = 68), who also had kidney transcriptomic profiles. One marker, plasma angiopoietin 2 (ANGPT2), was significantly associated with outcomes in cohorts from the Cardiovascular Health Study (N = 3,183) and the Chinese Cohort Study of Chronic Kidney Disease (N = 210). Glomerular transcriptional angiopoietin/Tie (ANG-TIE) pathway scores, derived from the expression of 154 ANG-TIE signaling mediators, correlated positively with plasma ANGPT2 levels and kidney outcomes. Higher receptor expression in glomeruli and higher ANG-TIE pathway scores in endothelial cells corroborated potential functional effects in the kidney from elevated plasma ANGPT2 levels. Our work suggests that ANGPT2 is a promising prognostic endothelial biomarker with likely functional impact on glomerular pathogenesis in DKD.

}, keywords = {Angiopoietin-1, Angiopoietin-2, Angiopoietins, Biomarkers, Cohort Studies, Diabetes Mellitus, Diabetic Nephropathies, Disease Progression, Endothelial Cells, Humans, Kidney Failure, Chronic, Receptor, TIE-2, Signal Transduction}, issn = {1939-327X}, doi = {10.2337/db22-0169}, author = {Liu, Jiahao and Nair, Viji and Zhao, Yi-Yang and Chang, Dong-Yuan and Limonte, Christine and Bansal, Nisha and Fermin, Damian and Eichinger, Felix and Tanner, Emily C and Bellovich, Keith A and Steigerwalt, Susan and Bhat, Zeenat and Hawkins, Jennifer J and Subramanian, Lalita and Rosas, Sylvia E and Sedor, John R and Vasquez, Miguel A and Waikar, Sushrut S and Bitzer, Markus and Pennathur, Subramaniam and Brosius, Frank C and de Boer, Ian and Chen, Min and Kretzler, Matthias and Ju, Wenjun} } @article {9586, title = {Machine learning models for blood pressure phenotypes combining multiple polygenic risk scores.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Dec 14}, abstract = {

We construct non-linear machine learning (ML) prediction models for systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP) using demographic and clinical variables and polygenic risk scores (PRSs). We developed a two-model ensemble, consisting of a baseline model, where prediction is based on demographic and clinical variables only, and a genetic model, where we also include PRSs. We evaluate the use of a linear versus a non-linear model at both the baseline and the genetic model levels and assess the improvement in performance when incorporating multiple PRSs. We report the ensemble model{\textquoteright}s performance as percentage variance explained (PVE) on a held-out test dataset. A non-linear baseline model improved the PVEs from 28.1\% to 30.1\% (SBP) and 14.3\% to 17.4\% (DBP) compared with a linear baseline model. Including seven PRSs in the genetic model computed based on the largest available GWAS of SBP/DBP improved the genetic model PVE from 4.8\% to 5.1\% (SBP) and 4.7\% to 5\% (DBP) compared to using a single PRS. Adding additional 14 PRSs computed based on two independent GWASs further increased the genetic model PVE to 6.3\% (SBP) and 5.7\% (DBP). PVE differed across self-reported race/ethnicity groups, with primarily all non-White groups benefitting from the inclusion of additional PRSs.

}, doi = {10.1101/2023.12.13.23299909}, author = {Hrytsenko, Yana and Shea, Benjamin and Elgart, Michael and Kurniansyah, Nuzulul and Lyons, Genevieve and Morrison, Alanna C and Carson, April P and Haring, Bernhard and Mitchel, Braxton D and Psaty, Bruce M and Jaeger, Byron C and Gu, C Charles and Kooperberg, Charles and Levy, Daniel and Lloyd-Jones, Donald and Choi, Eunhee and Brody, Jennifer A and Smith, Jennifer A and Rotter, Jerome I and Moll, Matthew and Fornage, Myriam and Simon, Noah and Castaldi, Peter and Casanova, Ramon and Chung, Ren-Hua and Kaplan, Robert and Loos, Ruth J F and Kardia, Sharon L R and Rich, Stephen S and Redline, Susan and Kelly, Tanika and O{\textquoteright}Connor, Timothy and Zhao, Wei and Kim, Wonji and Guo, Xiuqing and Der Ida Chen, Yii and Sofer, Tamar} } @article {9384, title = {Mortality Following Hip Fracture in Older Adults With and Without Coronary Heart Disease.}, journal = {Am J Med}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Apr 24}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Comorbidities like coronary heart disease are common among older people who sustain an osteoporotic hip fracture. However, their impact on short- and long-term mortality post-hip fracture is not well quantified.

METHODS: We examined 4092 and 1173 older adults without and with prevalent coronary heart disease, respectively. Post-hip fracture mortality rates were computed with Poisson models and hazard ratios with Cox regression. For perspective, we compared mortality rates among participants with prevalent coronary heart disease who had either a hip fracture or incident heart failure (but no hip fracture).

RESULTS: Among participants without prevalent coronary heart disease, the mortality rate post-hip fracture was 21.83 per 100 participant years, including 49.27 per 100 participant years in the first 6 months following hip fracture. Among participants with prevalent coronary heart disease, the corresponding mortality rates were 32.52 and 79.44 per 100 participant years, respectively. Participants with prevalent coronary heart disease and incident heart failure (but no hip fracture) had corresponding post-incident heart failure mortality rates per 100 participant years of 25.62 overall and 46.4 in the first 6 months. In all 3 groups, the hazard ratio for mortality was similarly elevated: 5- to 7-fold at 6 months and 1.7- to 2.5-fold beyond 5 years.

CONCLUSION: As a case study in the absolute effects of a comorbidity on post-hip fracture mortality, hip fracture in a person with coronary heart disease carries an exceedingly high mortality rate, even higher than that following incident heart failure in individuals with coronary heart disease.

}, issn = {1555-7162}, doi = {10.1016/j.amjmed.2023.03.036}, author = {Robbins, John A and B{\r u}zkov{\'a}, Petra and Barzilay, Joshua I and Cauley, Jane A and Fink, Howard A and Carbone, Laura D and Chen, Zhao and Stein, Phyllis K and Elam, Rachel and Sheets, Kerry and Mukamal, Kenneth J} } @article {9538, title = {Mosaic chromosomal alterations in blood across ancestries using whole-genome sequencing.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {55}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Nov}, pages = {1912-1919}, abstract = {

Megabase-scale mosaic chromosomal alterations (mCAs) in blood are prognostic markers for a host of human diseases. Here, to gain a better understanding of mCA rates in genetically diverse populations, we analyzed whole-genome sequencing data from 67,390 individuals from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine program. We observed higher sensitivity with whole-genome sequencing data, compared with array-based data, in uncovering mCAs at low mutant cell fractions and found that individuals of European ancestry have the highest rates of autosomal mCAs and the lowest rates of chromosome X mCAs, compared with individuals of African or Hispanic ancestry. Although further studies in diverse populations will be needed to replicate our findings, we report three loci associated with loss of chromosome X, associations between autosomal mCAs and rare variants in DCPS, ADM17, PPP1R16B and TET2 and ancestry-specific variants in ATM and MPL with mCAs in cis.

}, keywords = {Black People, Genome, Human, Genome-Wide Association Study, Hispanic or Latino, Humans, Mosaicism, Precision Medicine}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-023-01553-1}, author = {Jakubek, Yasminka A and Zhou, Ying and Stilp, Adrienne and Bacon, Jason and Wong, Justin W and Ozcan, Zuhal and Arnett, Donna and Barnes, Kathleen and Bis, Joshua C and Boerwinkle, Eric and Brody, Jennifer A and Carson, April P and Chasman, Daniel I and Chen, Jiawen and Cho, Michael and Conomos, Matthew P and Cox, Nancy and Doyle, Margaret F and Fornage, Myriam and Guo, Xiuqing and Kardia, Sharon L R and Lewis, Joshua P and Loos, Ruth J F and Ma, Xiaolong and Machiela, Mitchell J and Mack, Taralynn M and Mathias, Rasika A and Mitchell, Braxton D and Mychaleckyj, Josyf C and North, Kari and Pankratz, Nathan and Peyser, Patricia A and Preuss, Michael H and Psaty, Bruce and Raffield, Laura M and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Redline, Susan and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Silverman, Edwin K and Smith, Jennifer A and Smith, Aaron P and Taub, Margaret and Taylor, Kent D and Yun, Jeong and Li, Yun and Desai, Pinkal and Bick, Alexander G and Reiner, Alexander P and Scheet, Paul and Auer, Paul L} } @article {9501, title = {Multi-ancestry genome-wide study identifies effector genes and druggable pathways for coronary artery calcification.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {55}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Oct}, pages = {1651-1664}, abstract = {

Coronary artery calcification (CAC), a measure of subclinical atherosclerosis, predicts future symptomatic coronary artery disease (CAD). Identifying genetic risk factors for CAC may point to new therapeutic avenues for prevention. Currently, there are only four known risk loci for CAC identified from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in the general population. Here we conducted the largest multi-ancestry GWAS meta-analysis of CAC to date, which comprised 26,909 individuals of European ancestry and 8,867 individuals of African ancestry. We identified 11 independent risk loci, of which eight were new for CAC and five had not been reported for CAD. These new CAC loci are related to bone mineralization, phosphate catabolism and hormone metabolic pathways. Several new loci harbor candidate causal genes supported by multiple lines of functional evidence and are regulators of smooth muscle cell-mediated calcification ex vivo and in vitro. Together, these findings help refine the genetic architecture of CAC and extend our understanding of the biological and potential druggable pathways underlying CAC.

}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-023-01518-4}, author = {Kavousi, Maryam and Bos, Maxime M and Barnes, Hanna J and Lino Cardenas, Christian L and Wong, Doris and Lu, Haojie and Hodonsky, Chani J and Landsmeer, Lennart P L and Turner, Adam W and Kho, Minjung and Hasbani, Natalie R and de Vries, Paul S and Bowden, Donald W and Chopade, Sandesh and Deelen, Joris and Benavente, Ernest Diez and Guo, Xiuqing and Hofer, Edith and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Lutz, Sharon M and Lyytik{\"a}inen, Leo-Pekka and Slenders, Lotte and Smith, Albert V and Stanislawski, Maggie A and van Setten, Jessica and Wong, Quenna and Yanek, Lisa R and Becker, Diane M and Beekman, Marian and Budoff, Matthew J and Feitosa, Mary F and Finan, Chris and Hilliard, Austin T and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kovacic, Jason C and Kral, Brian G and Langefeld, Carl D and Launer, Lenore J and Malik, Shaista and Hoesein, Firdaus A A Mohamed and Mokry, Michal and Schmidt, Reinhold and Smith, Jennifer A and Taylor, Kent D and Terry, James G and van der Grond, Jeroen and van Meurs, Joyce and Vliegenthart, Rozemarijn and Xu, Jianzhao and Young, Kendra A and Zilh{\~a}o, Nuno R and Zweiker, Robert and Assimes, Themistocles L and Becker, Lewis C and Bos, Daniel and Carr, J Jeffrey and Cupples, L Adrienne and de Kleijn, Dominique P V and de Winther, Menno and den Ruijter, Hester M and Fornage, Myriam and Freedman, Barry I and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Hingorani, Aroon D and Hokanson, John E and Ikram, M Arfan and I{\v s}gum, Ivana and Jacobs, David R and K{\"a}h{\"o}nen, Mika and Lange, Leslie A and Lehtim{\"a}ki, Terho and Pasterkamp, Gerard and Raitakari, Olli T and Schmidt, Helena and Slagboom, P Eline and Uitterlinden, Andr{\'e} G and Vernooij, Meike W and Bis, Joshua C and Franceschini, Nora and Psaty, Bruce M and Post, Wendy S and Rotter, Jerome I and Bj{\"o}rkegren, Johan L M and O{\textquoteright}Donnell, Christopher J and Bielak, Lawrence F and Peyser, Patricia A and Malhotra, Rajeev and van der Laan, Sander W and Miller, Clint L} } @article {9385, title = {Multi-ancestry genome-wide study in >2.5 million individuals reveals heterogeneity in mechanistic pathways of type 2 diabetes and complications.}, journal = {medRxiv}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Mar 31}, abstract = {

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a heterogeneous disease that develops through diverse pathophysiological processes. To characterise the genetic contribution to these processes across ancestry groups, we aggregate genome-wide association study (GWAS) data from 2,535,601 individuals (39.7\% non-European ancestry), including 428,452 T2D cases. We identify 1,289 independent association signals at genome-wide significance (P<5{\texttimes}10 ) that map to 611 loci, of which 145 loci are previously unreported. We define eight non-overlapping clusters of T2D signals characterised by distinct profiles of cardiometabolic trait associations. These clusters are differentially enriched for cell-type specific regions of open chromatin, including pancreatic islets, adipocytes, endothelial, and enteroendocrine cells. We build cluster-specific partitioned genetic risk scores (GRS) in an additional 137,559 individuals of diverse ancestry, including 10,159 T2D cases, and test their association with T2D-related vascular outcomes. Cluster-specific partitioned GRS are more strongly associated with coronary artery disease and end-stage diabetic nephropathy than an overall T2D GRS across ancestry groups, highlighting the importance of obesity-related processes in the development of vascular outcomes. Our findings demonstrate the value of integrating multi-ancestry GWAS with single-cell epigenomics to disentangle the aetiological heterogeneity driving the development and progression of T2D, which may offer a route to optimise global access to genetically-informed diabetes care.

}, doi = {10.1101/2023.03.31.23287839}, author = {Suzuki, Ken and Hatzikotoulas, Konstantinos and Southam, Lorraine and Taylor, Henry J and Yin, Xianyong and Lorenz, Kim M and Mandla, Ravi and Huerta-Chagoya, Alicia and Rayner, Nigel W and Bocher, Ozvan and Ana Luiza de, S V Arruda and Sonehara, Kyuto and Namba, Shinichi and Lee, Simon S K and Preuss, Michael H and Petty, Lauren E and Schroeder, Philip and Vanderwerff, Brett and Kals, Mart and Bragg, Fiona and Lin, Kuang and Guo, Xiuqing and Zhang, Weihua and Yao, Jie and Kim, Young Jin and Graff, Mariaelisa and Takeuchi, Fumihiko and Nano, Jana and Lamri, Amel and Nakatochi, Masahiro and Moon, Sanghoon and Scott, Robert A and Cook, James P and Lee, Jung-Jin and Pan, Ian and Taliun, Daniel and Parra, Esteban J and Chai, Jin-Fang and Bielak, Lawrence F and Tabara, Yasuharu and Hai, Yang and Thorleifsson, Gudmar and Grarup, Niels and Sofer, Tamar and Wuttke, Matthias and Sarnowski, Chloe and Gieger, Christian and Nousome, Darryl and Trompet, Stella and Kwak, Soo-Heon and Long, Jirong and Sun, Meng and Tong, Lin and Chen, Wei-Min and Nongmaithem, Suraj S and Noordam, Raymond and Lim, Victor J Y and Tam, Claudia H T and Joo, Yoonjung Yoonie and Chen, Chien-Hsiun and Raffield, Laura M and Prins, Bram Peter and Nicolas, Aude and Yanek, Lisa R and Chen, Guanjie and Brody, Jennifer A and Kabagambe, Edmond and An, Ping and Xiang, Anny H and Choi, Hyeok Sun and Cade, Brian E and Tan, Jingyi and Alaine Broadaway, K and Williamson, Alice and Kamali, Zoha and Cui, Jinrui and Adair, Linda S and Adeyemo, Adebowale and Aguilar-Salinas, Carlos A and Ahluwalia, Tarunveer S and Anand, Sonia S and Bertoni, Alain and Bork-Jensen, Jette and Brandslund, Ivan and Buchanan, Thomas A and Burant, Charles F and Butterworth, Adam S and Canouil, Micka{\"e}l and Chan, Juliana C N and Chang, Li-Ching and Chee, Miao-Li and Chen, Ji and Chen, Shyh-Huei and Chen, Yuan-Tsong and Chen, Zhengming and Chuang, Lee-Ming and Cushman, Mary and Danesh, John and Das, Swapan K and Janaka de Silva, H and Dedoussis, George and Dimitrov, Latchezar and Doumatey, Ayo P and Du, Shufa and Duan, Qing and Eckardt, Kai-Uwe and Emery, Leslie S and Evans, Daniel S and Evans, Michele K and Fischer, Krista and Floyd, James S and Ford, Ian and Franco, Oscar H and Frayling, Timothy M and Freedman, Barry I and Genter, Pauline and Gerstein, Hertzel C and Giedraitis, Vilmantas and Gonz{\'a}lez-Villalpando, Clicerio and Gonzalez-Villalpando, Maria Elena and Gordon-Larsen, Penny and Gross, Myron and Guare, Lindsay A and Hackinger, Sophie and Han, Sohee and Hattersley, Andrew T and Herder, Christian and Horikoshi, Momoko and Howard, Annie-Green and Hsueh, Willa and Huang, Mengna and Huang, Wei and Hung, Yi-Jen and Hwang, Mi Yeong and Hwu, Chii-Min and Ichihara, Sahoko and Ikram, Mohammad Arfan and Ingelsson, Martin and Islam, Md Tariqul and Isono, Masato and Jang, Hye-Mi and Jasmine, Farzana and Jiang, Guozhi and Jonas, Jost B and J{\o}rgensen, Torben and Kandeel, Fouad R and Kasturiratne, Anuradhani and Katsuya, Tomohiro and Kaur, Varinderpal and Kawaguchi, Takahisa and Keaton, Jacob M and Kho, Abel N and Khor, Chiea-Chuen and Kibriya, Muhammad G and Kim, Duk-Hwan and Kronenberg, Florian and Kuusisto, Johanna and L{\"a}ll, Kristi and Lange, Leslie A and Lee, Kyung Min and Lee, Myung-Shik and Lee, Nanette R and Leong, Aaron and Li, Liming and Li, Yun and Li-Gao, Ruifang and Lithgart, Symen and Lindgren, Cecilia M and Linneberg, Allan and Liu, Ching-Ti and Liu, Jianjun and Locke, Adam E and Louie, Tin and Luan, Jian{\textquoteright}an and Luk, Andrea O and Luo, Xi and Lv, Jun and Lynch, Julie A and Lyssenko, Valeriya and Maeda, Shiro and Mamakou, Vasiliki and Mansuri, Sohail Rafik and Matsuda, Koichi and Meitinger, Thomas and Metspalu, Andres and Mo, Huan and Morris, Andrew D and Nadler, Jerry L and Nalls, Michael A and Nayak, Uma and Ntalla, Ioanna and Okada, Yukinori and Orozco, Lorena and Patel, Sanjay R and Patil, Snehal and Pei, Pei and Pereira, Mark A and Peters, Annette and Pirie, Fraser J and Polikowsky, Hannah G and Porneala, Bianca and Prasad, Gauri and Rasmussen-Torvik, Laura J and Reiner, Alexander P and Roden, Michael and Rohde, Rebecca and Roll, Katheryn and Sabanayagam, Charumathi and Sandow, Kevin and Sankareswaran, Alagu and Sattar, Naveed and Sch{\"o}nherr, Sebastian and Shahriar, Mohammad and Shen, Botong and Shi, Jinxiu and Shin, Dong Mun and Shojima, Nobuhiro and Smith, Jennifer A and So, Wing Yee and Stan{\v c}{\'a}kov{\'a}, Alena and Steinthorsdottir, Valgerdur and Stilp, Adrienne M and Strauch, Konstantin and Taylor, Kent D and Thorand, Barbara and Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur and Tomlinson, Brian and Tran, Tam C and Tsai, Fuu-Jen and Tuomilehto, Jaakko and Tusi{\'e}-Luna, Teresa and Udler, Miriam S and Valladares-Salgado, Adan and van Dam, Rob M and van Klinken, Jan B and Varma, Rohit and Wacher-Rodarte, Niels and Wheeler, Eleanor and Wickremasinghe, Ananda R and van Dijk, Ko Willems and Witte, Daniel R and Yajnik, Chittaranjan S and Yamamoto, Ken and Yamamoto, Kenichi and Yoon, Kyungheon and Yu, Canqing and Yuan, Jian-Min and Yusuf, Salim and Zawistowski, Matthew and Zhang, Liang and Zheng, Wei and Project, Biobank Japan and BioBank, Penn Medicine and Center, Regeneron Genetics and Consortium, eMERGE and Raffel, Leslie J and Igase, Michiya and Ipp, Eli and Redline, Susan and Cho, Yoon Shin and Lind, Lars and Province, Michael A and Fornage, Myriam and Hanis, Craig L and Ingelsson, Erik and Zonderman, Alan B and Psaty, Bruce M and Wang, Ya-Xing and Rotimi, Charles N and Becker, Diane M and Matsuda, Fumihiko and Liu, Yongmei and Yokota, Mitsuhiro and Kardia, Sharon L R and Peyser, Patricia A and Pankow, James S and Engert, James C and Bonnefond, Am{\'e}lie and Froguel, Philippe and Wilson, James G and Sheu, Wayne H H and Wu, Jer-Yuarn and Geoffrey Hayes, M and Ma, Ronald C W and Wong, Tien-Yin and Mook-Kanamori, Dennis O and Tuomi, Tiinamaija and Chandak, Giriraj R and Collins, Francis S and Bharadwaj, Dwaipayan and Par{\'e}, Guillaume and Sale, Mich{\`e}le M and Ahsan, Habibul and Motala, Ayesha A and Shu, Xiao-Ou and Park, Kyong-Soo and Jukema, J Wouter and Cruz, Miguel and Chen, Yii-Der Ida and Rich, Stephen S and McKean-Cowdin, Roberta and Grallert, Harald and Cheng, Ching-Yu and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Tai, E-Shyong and Dupuis, Jos{\'e}e and Kato, Norihiro and Laakso, Markku and K{\"o}ttgen, Anna and Koh, Woon-Puay and Bowden, Donald W and Palmer, Colin N A and Kooner, Jaspal S and Kooperberg, Charles and Liu, Simin and North, Kari E and Saleheen, Danish and Hansen, Torben and Pedersen, Oluf and Wareham, Nicholas J and Lee, Juyoung and Kim, Bong-Jo and Millwood, Iona Y and Walters, Robin G and Stefansson, Kari and Goodarzi, Mark O and Mohlke, Karen L and Langenberg, Claudia and Haiman, Christopher A and Loos, Ruth J F and Florez, Jose C and Rader, Daniel J and Ritchie, Marylyn D and Z{\"o}llner, Sebastian and M{\"a}gi, Reedik and Denny, Joshua C and Yamauchi, Toshimasa and Kadowaki, Takashi and Chambers, John C and Ng, Maggie C Y and Sim, Xueling and Below, Jennifer E and Tsao, Philip S and Chang, Kyong-Mi and McCarthy, Mark I and Meigs, James B and Mahajan, Anubha and Spracklen, Cassandra N and Mercader, Josep M and Boehnke, Michael and Rotter, Jerome I and Vujkovic, Marijana and Voight, Benjamin F and Morris, Andrew P and Zeggini, Eleftheria} } @article {9412, title = {Multi-ancestry transcriptome-wide association analyses yield insights into tobacco use biology and drug repurposing.}, journal = {Nat Genet}, volume = {55}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Feb}, pages = {291-300}, abstract = {

Most transcriptome-wide association studies (TWASs) so far focus on European ancestry and lack diversity. To overcome this limitation, we aggregated genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics, whole-genome sequences and expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) data from diverse ancestries. We developed a new approach, TESLA (multi-ancestry integrative study using an optimal linear combination of association statistics), to integrate an eQTL dataset with a multi-ancestry GWAS. By exploiting shared phenotypic effects between ancestries and accommodating potential effect heterogeneities, TESLA improves power over other TWAS methods. When applied to tobacco use phenotypes, TESLA identified 273 new genes, up to 55\% more compared with alternative TWAS methods. These hits and subsequent fine mapping using TESLA point to target genes with biological relevance. In silico drug-repurposing analyses highlight several drugs with known efficacy, including dextromethorphan and galantamine, and new drugs such as muscle relaxants that may be repurposed for treating nicotine addiction.

}, keywords = {Biology, Drug Repositioning, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Tobacco Use, Transcriptome}, issn = {1546-1718}, doi = {10.1038/s41588-022-01282-x}, author = {Chen, Fang and Wang, Xingyan and Jang, Seon-Kyeong and Quach, Bryan C and Weissenkampen, J Dylan and Khunsriraksakul, Chachrit and Yang, Lina and Sauteraud, Renan and Albert, Christine M and Allred, Nicholette D D and Arnett, Donna K and Ashley-Koch, Allison E and Barnes, Kathleen C and Barr, R Graham and Becker, Diane M and Bielak, Lawrence F and Bis, Joshua C and Blangero, John and Boorgula, Meher Preethi and Chasman, Daniel I and Chavan, Sameer and Chen, Yii-der I and Chuang, Lee-Ming and Correa, Adolfo and Curran, Joanne E and David, Sean P and Fuentes, Lisa de Las and Deka, Ranjan and Duggirala, Ravindranath and Faul, Jessica D and Garrett, Melanie E and Gharib, Sina A and Guo, Xiuqing and Hall, Michael E and Hawley, Nicola L and He, Jiang and Hobbs, Brian D and Hokanson, John E and Hsiung, Chao A and Hwang, Shih-Jen and Hyde, Thomas M and Irvin, Marguerite R and Jaffe, Andrew E and Johnson, Eric O and Kaplan, Robert and Kardia, Sharon L R and Kaufman, Joel D and Kelly, Tanika N and Kleinman, Joel E and Kooperberg, Charles and Lee, I-Te and Levy, Daniel and Lutz, Sharon M and Manichaikul, Ani W and Martin, Lisa W and Marx, Olivia and McGarvey, Stephen T and Minster, Ryan L and Moll, Matthew and Moussa, Karine A and Naseri, Take and North, Kari E and Oelsner, Elizabeth C and Peralta, Juan M and Peyser, Patricia A and Psaty, Bruce M and Rafaels, Nicholas and Raffield, Laura M and Reupena, Muagututi{\textquoteright}a Sefuiva and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Schwartz, David A and Shadyab, Aladdin H and Sheu, Wayne H-H and Sims, Mario and Smith, Jennifer A and Sun, Xiao and Taylor, Kent D and Telen, Marilyn J and Watson, Harold and Weeks, Daniel E and Weir, David R and Yanek, Lisa R and Young, Kendra A and Young, Kristin L and Zhao, Wei and Hancock, Dana B and Jiang, Bibo and Vrieze, Scott and Liu, Dajiang J} } @article {9241, title = {Multiple Prior Live Births are Associated with Cardiac Remodeling and Heart Failure Risk in Women.}, journal = {J Card Fail}, year = {2023}, month = {2023 Jan 10}, abstract = {

INTRODUCTION: Greater parity has been associated with cardiovascular disease risk, though effects on cardiac remodeling and heart failure risk remain unclear.

METHODS: We examined the association of number of live births and echocardiographic measures of cardiac structure and function in participants of the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) using multivariable linear regression. We next examined the association of parity with incident heart failure with preserved (HFpEF) or reduced (HFrEF) ejection fraction using a Fine-Gray subdistribution hazards model in a pooled analysis of n=12,635 participants of FHS, the Cardiovascular Health Study, the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, and Prevention of Renal and Vascular Endstage Disease. Secondary analyses included major CVD, MI, and stroke.

RESULTS: Among n=3931 FHS participants (mean age 48 {\textpm} 13 years), higher number of live births was associated with worse LV fractional shortening (multivariable β -1.11 (0.31), p= 0.0005 in >= 5 live births vs nulliparous women) and worse cardiac mechanics including global circumferential strain and longitudinal and radial dyssynchrony (p< 0.01 for all comparing >= 5 live births vs nulliparity). When examining HF subtypes, women with >=5 live births were at higher risk of developing future HFrEF compared with nulliparous women (HR 1.93, 95\% CI 1.19-3.12, p=0.008); by contrast, a lower risk of HFpEF was observed (HR 0.58, 95\% CI 0.37-0.91, p=0.02).

CONCLUSIONS: Greater number of live births are associated with worse cardiac structure and function. While there was no association with overall HF, a higher number of live births was associated with greater risk for incident HFrEF.

}, issn = {1532-8414}, doi = {10.1016/j.cardfail.2022.12.014}, author = {Sarma, Amy A and Paniagua, Samantha M and Lau, Emily S and Wang, Dongyu and Liu, Elizabeth E and Larson, Martin G and Hamburg, Naomi M and Mitchell, Gary F and Kizer, Jorge and Psaty, Bruce M and Allen, Norrina B and Lely, A Titia and Gansevoort, Ronald T and Rosenberg, Emily and Mukamal, Kenneth and Benjamin, Emelia J and Vasan, Ramachandran S and Cheng, Susan and Levy, Daniel and de Boer, Rudolf A and Gottdiener, John S and Shah, Sanjiv J and Ho, Jennifer E} } @article {9646, title = {Methylation patterns associated with C-reactive protein in racially and ethnically diverse populations.}, journal = {Epigenetics}, volume = {19}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Dec}, pages = {2333668}, abstract = {

Systemic low-grade inflammation is a feature of chronic disease. C-reactive protein (CRP) is a common biomarker of inflammation and used as an indicator of disease risk; however, the role of inflammation in disease is not completely understood. Methylation is an epigenetic modification in the DNA which plays a pivotal role in gene expression. In this study we evaluated differential DNA methylation patterns associated with blood CRP level to elucidate biological pathways and genetic regulatory mechanisms to improve the understanding of chronic inflammation. The racially and ethnically diverse participants in this study were included as 50\% White, 41\% Black or African American, 7\% Hispanic or Latino/a, and 2\% Native Hawaiian, Asian American, American Indian, or Alaska Native (total = 13,433) individuals. We replicated 113 CpG sites from 87 unique loci, of which five were novel (, , and cg03282312), across a discovery set of 1,150 CpG sites associated with CRP level ( < 1.2E-7). The downstream pathways affected by DNA methylation included the identification of and CpG-gene transcript pairs which contributed to the innate immune response gene enrichment pathway along with , , and . Gene enrichment analysis also identified the nuclear factor-kappaB transcription pathway. Using two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) we inferred methylation at three CpG sites as causal for CRP levels using both White and Black or African American MR instrument variables. Overall, we identified novel CpG sites and gene transcripts that could be valuable in understanding the specific cellular processes and pathogenic mechanisms involved in inflammation.

}, keywords = {C-Reactive Protein, CpG Islands, DNA, DNA Methylation, Epigenesis, Genetic, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Inflammation, Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins}, issn = {1559-2308}, doi = {10.1080/15592294.2024.2333668}, author = {Lundin, Jessica I and Peters, Ulrike and Hu, Yao and Ammous, Farah and Avery, Christy L and Benjamin, Emelia J and Bis, Joshua C and Brody, Jennifer A and Carlson, Chris and Cushman, Mary and Gignoux, Chris and Guo, Xiuqing and Haessler, Jeff and Haiman, Chris and Joehanes, Roby and Kasela, Silva and Kenny, Eimear and Lapalainien, Tuuli and Levy, Daniel and Liu, Chunyu and Liu, Yongmei and Loos, Ruth J F and Lu, Ake and Matise, Tara and North, Kari E and Park, Sungshim L and Ratliff, Scott M and Reiner, Alex and Rich, Stephen S and Rotter, Jerome I and Smith, Jennifer A and Sotoodehnia, Nona and Tracy, Russell and Van den Berg, David and Xu, Huichun and Ye, Ting and Zhao, Wei and Raffield, Laura M and Kooperberg, Charles} } @article {9578, title = {Multi-omics and pathway analyses of genome-wide associations implicate regulation and immunity in verbal declarative memory performance.}, journal = {Alzheimers Res Ther}, volume = {16}, year = {2024}, month = {2024 Jan 20}, pages = {14}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Uncovering the functional relevance underlying verbal declarative memory (VDM) genome-wide association study (GWAS) results may facilitate the development of interventions to reduce age-related memory decline and dementia.

METHODS: We performed multi-omics and pathway enrichment analyses of paragraph (PAR-dr) and word list (WL-dr) delayed recall GWAS from 29,076 older non-demented individuals of European descent. We assessed the relationship between single-variant associations and expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) in 44 tissues and methylation quantitative trait loci (meQTLs) in the hippocampus. We determined the relationship between gene associations and transcript levels in 53 tissues, annotation as immune genes, and regulation by transcription factors (TFs) and microRNAs. To identify significant pathways, gene set enrichment was tested in each cohort and meta-analyzed across cohorts. Analyses of differential expression in brain tissues were conducted for pathway component genes.

RESULTS: The single-variant associations of VDM showed significant linkage disequilibrium (LD) with eQTLs across all tissues and meQTLs within the hippocampus. Stronger WL-dr gene associations correlated with reduced expression in four brain tissues, including the hippocampus. More robust PAR-dr and/or WL-dr gene associations were intricately linked with immunity and were influenced by 31 TFs and 2 microRNAs. Six pathways, including type I diabetes, exhibited significant associations with both PAR-dr and WL-dr. These pathways included fifteen MHC genes intricately linked to VDM performance, showing diverse expression patterns based on cognitive status in brain tissues.

CONCLUSIONS: VDM genetic associations influence expression regulation via eQTLs and meQTLs. The involvement of TFs, microRNAs, MHC genes, and immune-related pathways contributes to VDM performance in older individuals.

}, keywords = {Aged, Cognition, Genome-Wide Association Study, Humans, Memory, MicroRNAs, Multiomics, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide}, issn = {1758-9193}, doi = {10.1186/s13195-023-01376-6}, author = {Mei, Hao and Simino, Jeannette and Li, Lianna and Jiang, Fan and Bis, Joshua C and Davies, Gail and Hill, W David and Xia, Charley and Gudnason, Vilmundur and Yang, Qiong and Lahti, Jari and Smith, Jennifer A and Kirin, Mirna and De Jager, Philip and Armstrong, Nicola J and Ghanbari, Mohsen and Kolcic, Ivana and Moran, Christopher and Teumer, Alexander and Sargurupremraj, Murali and Mahmud, Shamsed and Fornage, Myriam and Zhao, Wei and Satizabal, Claudia L and Polasek, Ozren and R{\"a}ikk{\"o}nen, Katri and Liewald, David C and Homuth, Georg and Callisaya, Michele and Mather, Karen A and Windham, B Gwen and Zemunik, Tatijana and Palotie, Aarno and Pattie, Alison and van der Auwera, Sandra and Thalamuthu, Anbupalam and Knopman, David S and Rudan, Igor and Starr, John M and Wittfeld, Katharina and Kochan, Nicole A and Griswold, Michael E and Vitart, Veronique and Brodaty, Henry and Gottesman, Rebecca and Cox, Simon R and Psaty, Bruce M and Boerwinkle, Eric and Chasman, Daniel I and Grodstein, Francine and Sachdev, Perminder S and Srikanth, Velandai and Hayward, Caroline and Wilson, James F and Eriksson, Johan G and Kardia, Sharon L R and Grabe, Hans J and Bennett, David A and Ikram, M Arfan and Deary, Ian J and van Duijn, Cornelia M and Launer, Lenore and Fitzpatrick, Annette L and Seshadri, Sudha and Bressler, Jan and Debette, Stephanie and Mosley, Thomas H} } @article {9618, title = {{Multi-trait analysis characterizes the genetics of thyroid function and identifies causal associations with clinical implications}, journal = {Nat Commun}, volume = {15}, year = {2024}, month = {Jan}, pages = {888}, abstract = {T3, whereas the FT4 associations represent the thyroid hormone metabolism. Polygenic risk score and Mendelian randomization analyses showed the effects of genetically determined variation in thyroid function on various clinical outcomes, including cardiovascular risk factors and diseases, autoimmune diseases, and cancer. In conclusion, our results improve the understanding of thyroid hormone physiology and highlight the pleiotropic effects of thyroid function on various diseases.}, author = {Sterenborg, R. B. T. M. and Steinbrenner, I. and Li, Y. and Bujnis, M. N. and Naito, T. and Marouli, E. and Galesloot, T. E. and Babajide, O. and Andreasen, L. and Astrup, A. and svold, B. O. and Bandinelli, S. and Beekman, M. and Beilby, J. P. and Bork-Jensen, J. and Boutin, T. and Brody, J. A. and Brown, S. J. and Brumpton, B. and Campbell, P. J. and Cappola, A. R. and Ceresini, G. and Chaker, L. and Chasman, D. I. and Concas, M. P. and Coutinho de Almeida, R. and Cross, S. M. and Cucca, F. and Deary, I. J. and Kjaergaard, A. D. and Echouffo Tcheugui, J. B. and Ellervik, C. and Eriksson, J. G. and Ferrucci, L. and Freudenberg, J. and Fuchsberger, C. and Gieger, C. and Giulianini, F. and gele, M. and Graham, S. E. and Grarup, N. and {\"a}, I. and Hansen, T. and Harding, B. N. and Harris, S. E. and {\o}, S. and Hayward, C. and Hui, J. and Ittermann, T. and Jukema, J. W. and Kajantie, E. and Kanters, J. K. and rhus, L. L. and Kiemeney, L. A. L. M. and Kloppenburg, M. and hnel, B. and Lahti, J. and Langenberg, C. and Lapauw, B. and Leese, G. and Li, S. and Liewald, D. C. M. and Linneberg, A. and Lominchar, J. V. T. and Luan, J. and Martin, N. G. and Matana, A. and Meima, M. E. and Meitinger, T. and Meulenbelt, I. and Mitchell, B. D. and llehave, L. T. and Mora, S. and Naitza, S. and Nauck, M. and Netea-Maier, R. T. and Noordam, R. and Nursyifa, C. and Okada, Y. and Onano, S. and Papadopoulou, A. and Palmer, C. N. A. and Pattaro, C. and Pedersen, O. and Peters, A. and Pietzner, M. and ek, O. and Pramstaller, P. P. and Psaty, B. M. and Punda, A. and Ray, D. and Redmond, P. and Richards, J. B. and Ridker, P. M. and Russ, T. C. and Ryan, K. A. and Olesen, M. S. and Schultheiss, U. T. and Selvin, E. and Siddiqui, M. K. and Sidore, C. and Slagboom, P. E. and rensen, T. I. A. and Soto-Pedre, E. and Spector, T. D. and Spedicati, B. and Srinivasan, S. and Starr, J. M. and Stott, D. J. and Tanaka, T. and Torlak, V. and Trompet, S. and Tuhkanen, J. and Uitterlinden, A. G. and van den Akker, E. B. and van den Eynde, T. and van der Klauw, M. M. and van Heemst, D. and Verroken, C. and Visser, W. E. and Vojinovic, D. and lzke, H. and Waldenberger, M. and Walsh, J. P. and Wareham, N. J. and Weiss, S. and Willer, C. J. and Wilson, S. G. and Wolffenbuttel, B. H. R. and Wouters, H. J. C. M. and Wright, M. J. and Yang, Q. and Zemunik, T. and Zhou, W. and Zhu, G. and llner, S. and Smit, J. W. A. and Peeters, R. P. and ttgen, A. and Teumer, A. and Medici, M.} }