Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies common variants associated with blood pressure variation in east Asians

• Published in: Nature genetics Vol. 43; no. 6; pp. 531 - 538
• Main Authors: Kato, Norihiro, Takeuchi, Fumihiko, Tabara, Yasuharu, Kelly, Tanika N, Go, Min Jin, Sim, Xueling, Tay, Wan Ting, Chen, Chien-Hsiun, Zhang, Yi, Yamamoto, Ken, Katsuya, Tomohiro, Yokota, Mitsuhiro, Kim, Young Jin, Ong, Rick Twee Hee, Nabika, Toru, Gu, Dongfeng, Chang, Li-ching, Kokubo, Yoshihiro, Huang, Wei, Ohnaka, Keizo, Yamori, Yukio, Nakashima, Eitaro, Jaquish, Cashell E, Lee, Jong-Young, Seielstad, Mark, Isono, Masato, Hixson, James E, Chen, Yuan-Tsong, Miki, Tetsuro, Zhou, Xueya, Sugiyama, Takao, Jeon, Jae-Pil, Liu, Jian Jun, Takayanagi, Ryoichi, Kim, Sung Soo, Aung, Tin, Sung, Yun Ju, Zhang, Xuegong, Wong, Tien Yin, Han, Bok-Ghee, Kobayashi, Shotai, Ogihara, Toshio, Zhu, Dingliang, Iwai, Naoharu, Wu, Jer-Yuarn, Teo, Yik Ying, Tai, E Shyong, Cho, Yoon Shin, He, Jiang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Nature Publishing Group US 01.06.2011; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/208/205/2138; 631/208/2489/144; 692/699/75/243; 692/700/478/174; Agriculture; Animal Genetics and Genomics; Asia, Eastern; Asian People - genetics; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedical research; Biomedicine; Blood pressure; Blood Pressure - genetics; Cancer Research; Demographic aspects; Diastole - genetics; Epidemiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene expression; Gene Frequency; Gene Function; Genetic aspects; Genetics; Genetics of eukaryotes. Biological and molecular evolution; Genome-Wide Association Study; Genomes; Health sciences; Human Genetics; Humans; Hypertension; Meta-analysis; Minority & ethnic groups; Physiological aspects; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Science; Single nucleotide polymorphisms; Studies; Systole - genetics; White People - genetics; Asia, Eastern; Japan; Singapore; Taiwan; Variant; Identification; Blood pressure; Association; Hemodynamics; Metaanalysis
• ISSN: 1061-4036; 1546-1718; 1546-1718
• DOI: 10.1038/ng.834

Norihiro Kato and colleagues perform a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies to identify common variants associated with blood pressure variation in east Asians. They identify five new genome-wide significant signals and replicate seven loci previously discovered in populations of European ancestry. We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure in 19,608 subjects of east Asian ancestry from the AGEN-BP consortium followed up with de novo genotyping ( n = 10,518) and further replication ( n = 20,247) in east Asian samples. We identified genome-wide significant ( P < 5 × 10 −8 ) associations with SBP or DBP, which included variants at four new loci ( ST7L - CAPZA1 , FIGN-GRB14 , ENPEP and NPR3 ) and a newly discovered variant near TBX3 . Among the five newly discovered variants, we obtained significant replication in the independent samples for all of these loci except NPR3 . We also confirmed seven loci previously identified in populations of European descent. Moreover, at 12q24.13 near ALDH2 , we observed strong association signals ( P = 7.9 × 10 −31 and P = 1.3 × 10 −35 for SBP and DBP, respectively) with ethnic specificity. These findings provide new insights into blood pressure regulation and potential targets for intervention.