A genetic correlation scan identifies blood proteins associated with bone mineral density

• Published in: BMC musculoskeletal disorders Vol. 23; no. 1; p. 530
• Main Authors: Xu, Jiawen, Zhang, Shaoyun, Si, Haibo, Zeng, Yi, Wu, Yuangang, Liu, Yuan, Li, Mingyang, Wu, Limin, Shen, Bin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 03.06.2022; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Biobanks; Blood; Blood proteins; Blood proteome; Bone density; Bone diseases; Bone mass; Bone mineral density; Bones; Correlation analysis; Density; Fractures; Gene expression; Genetic analysis; Genetic aspects; Genome-wide association studies; Genome-wide association study; Genomes; Human plasma protein; Linkage analysis; Linkage disequilibrium; Linkage disequilibrium score regression; Musculoskeletal diseases; Osteoporosis; PARK7 protein; Physiology; Plasma; Plasma proteins; Proteins; Proteomes; Quality control; Risk factors; Ultrasonic imaging; Womens health; China; United Kingdom > UK; United States > US; Human plasma protein; Osteoporosis; Bone mineral density; Genome-wide association study; Blood proteome; Linkage disequilibrium score regression
• ISSN: 1471-2474; 1471-2474
• DOI: 10.1186/s12891-022-05453-z

Osteoporosis is a common metabolic bone disease that is characterized by low bone mass. However, limited efforts have been made to explore the functional relevance of the blood proteome to bone mineral density across different life stages. Using genome-wide association study summary data of the blood proteome and two independent studies of bone mineral density, we conducted a genetic correlation scan of bone mineral density and the blood proteome. Linkage disequilibrium score regression analysis was conducted to assess genetic correlations between each of the 3283 plasma proteins and bone mineral density. Linkage disequilibrium score regression identified 18 plasma proteins showing genetic correlation signals with bone mineral density in the TB-BMD cohort, such as MYOM2 (coefficient = 0.3755, P value = 0.0328) among subjects aged 0 ~ 15, POSTN (coefficient = - 0.5694, P value = 0.0192) among subjects aged 30 ~ 45 and PARK7 (coefficient = - 0.3613, P value = 0.0052) among subjects aged over 60. Our results identified multiple plasma proteins associated with bone mineral density and provided novel clues for revealing the functional relevance of plasma proteins to bone mineral density.