Are C-reactive protein associated genetic variants associated with serum levels and retinal markers of microvascular pathology in Asian populations from Singapore?
Journal Article (Journal Article)
INTRODUCTION: C-reactive protein (CRP) levels are associated with cardiovascular disease and systemic inflammation. We assessed whether CRP-associated loci were associated with serum CRP and retinal markers of microvascular disease, in Asian populations. METHODS: Genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) for serum CRP was performed in East-Asian Chinese (N = 2,434) and Malays (N = 2,542) and South-Asian Indians (N = 2,538) from Singapore. Leveraging on GWAS data, we assessed, in silico, association levels among the Singaporean datasets for 22 recently identified CRP-associated loci. At loci where directional inconsistencies were observed, quantification of inter-ethnic linkage disequilibrium (LD) difference was determined. Next, we assessed association for a variant at CRP and retinal vessel traits [central retinal artery equivalent (CRAE) and central retinal vein equivalent (CRVE)] in a total of 24,132 subjects of East-Asian, South-Asian and European ancestry. RESULTS: Serum CRP was associated with SNPs in/near APOE, CRP, HNF1A and LEPR (p-values ≤4.7×10(-8)) after meta-analysis of Singaporean populations. Using a candidate-SNP approach, we further replicated SNPs at 4 additional loci that had been recently identified to be associated with serum CRP (IL6R, GCKR, IL6 and IL1F10) (p-values ≤0.009), in the Singaporean datasets. SNPs from these 8 loci explained 4.05% of variance in serum CRP. Two SNPs (rs2847281 and rs6901250) were detected to be significant (p-value ≤0.036) but with opposite effect directions in the Singaporean populations as compared to original European studies. At these loci we did not detect significant inter-population LD differences. We further did not observe a significant association between CRP variant and CRVE or CRAE levels after meta-analysis of all Singaporean and European datasets (p-value >0.058). CONCLUSIONS: Common variants associated with serum CRP, first detected in primarily European studies, are also associated with CRP levels in East-Asian and South-Asian populations. We did not find a causal link between CRP and retinal measures of microvascular disease.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Dorajoo, R; Li, R; Ikram, MK; Liu, J; Froguel, P; Lee, J; Sim, X; Ong, RT-H; Tay, WT; Peng, C; Young, TL; Blakemore, AIF; Cheng, CY; Aung, T; Mitchell, P; Wang, JJ; Klaver, CC; Boerwinkle, E; Klein, R; Siscovick, DS; Jensen, RA; Gudnason, V; Smith, AV; Teo, YY; Wong, TY; Tai, E-S; Heng, C-K; Friedlander, Y
Published Date
- 2013
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 8 / 7
Start / End Page
- e67650 -
PubMed ID
- 23844046
Pubmed Central ID
- PMC3699653
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1932-6203
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1371/journal.pone.0067650
Language
- eng
Conference Location
- United States