Identification of a genetic variant at 2q12.1 associated with blood pressure in East Asians by genome-wide scan including gene-environment interactions (original) (raw)

2014, BMC medical genetics

Genome-wide association studies have identified many genetic loci associated with blood pressure (BP). Genetic effects on BP can be altered by environmental exposures via multiple biological pathways. Especially, obesity is one of important environmental risk factors that can have considerable effect on BP and it may interact with genetic factors. Given that, we aimed to test whether genetic factors and obesity may jointly influence BP. We performed meta-analyses of genome-wide association data for systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) that included analyses of interaction between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and the obesity-related anthropometric measures, body mass index (BMI), height, weight, and waist/hip ratio (WHR) in East-Asians (n = 12,030). We identified that rs13390641 on 2q12.1 demonstrated significant association with SBP when the interaction between SNPs and BMI was considered (P < 5 × 10 -8). The gene located nearest to rs1339064...