Genome-wide association analysis of pulse wave velocity traits provide new insights into the causal relationship between arterial stiffness and blood pressure

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 15; no. 8; p. e0237237
• Main Authors: Rode, Michael, Teren, Andrej, Wirkner, Kerstin, Horn, Katrin, Kirsten, Holger, Loeffler, Markus, Scholz, Markus, Pott, Janne
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Francisco Public Library of Science 13.08.2020; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Ankle; Architecture; Association analysis; Biology and Life Sciences; Blood pressure; Blood pressure measurement; Cardiovascular research; Causes of; Chromosome 14; Civilization; Coronary artery; Coronary artery disease; Coronary heart disease; Correlation; Correlation analysis; Epidemiology; Femur; Genetic analysis; Genetic aspects; Genetic diversity; Genetic variance; Genetic variation; Genetics; Genome-wide association studies; Genomes; Genotype & phenotype; Health informatics; Heart diseases; Heritability; Hypertension; Lead; Loci; Medicine and Health Sciences; Physical Sciences; Pressure effects; Single-nucleotide polymorphism; Software; Stiffness; Velocity; Wave velocity; Germany
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0237237

The pathophysiology of arterial stiffness is not completely understood. Pulse wave velocity (PWV) is an established marker for arterial stiffness. We compare genetics of three PWV modes, namely carotid-femoral PWV (cfPWV), brachial-ankle (baPWV) and brachial-femoral (bfPWV), reflecting different vascular segments to analyse association with genetic variants, heritability and genetic correlation with other biological traits. Furthermore we searched for shared genetic architecture concerning PWV, blood pressure (BP) and coronary artery disease (CAD) and examined the causal relationship between PWV and BP. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for cfPWV, baPWV and bfPWV in LIFE-Adult (N = 3,643-6,734). We analysed the overlap of detected genetic loci with those of BP and CAD and performed genetic correlation analyses. By bidirectional Mendelian Randomization, we assessed the causal relationships between PWV and BP. For cfPWV we identified a new locus with genome-wide significance near SLC4A7 on cytoband 3p24.1 (lead SNP rs939834: p = 2.05x10.sup.-8). We replicated a known PWV locus on cytoband 14q32.2 near RP11-61O1.1 (lead SNPs: rs17773233, p = 1.38x10.sup.-4 ; rs1381289, p = 1.91x10.sup.-4) For baPWV we estimated a heritability of 28% and significant genetic correlation with hypertension (rg = 0.27, p = 6.65x10.sup.-8). We showed a positive causal effect of systolic blood pressure on PWV modes (cfPWV: p = 1.51x10.sup.-4 ; bfPWV: p = 1.45x10.sup.-3 ; baPWV: p = 6.82x10.sup.-15). We identified a new locus for arterial stiffness and successfully replicated an earlier proposed locus. PWV shares common genetic architecture with BP and CAD. BP causally affects PWV. Larger studies are required to further unravel the genetic determinants and effects of PWV.