We aim to determine, in healthy high-risk adults, the association between subclinical coronary artery disease and white matter hyperintensity (WMH) volume and location, independent of atherosclerotic ...risk factors.
Seven hundred eighty-two asymptomatic first-degree relatives of index cases with early-onset coronary artery disease (<60 years old) from GeneSTAR (Genetic Study of Atherosclerosis Risk) with contemporaneous coronary computed tomography angiography and brain magnetic resonance imaging were analyzed. Multilevel mixed-effects linear regression models, accounting for family structure, evaluated the association of total WMH volume and 3 regions (deep WMH, periventricular WMH PVWMH, or borderzone cuff) with markers of coronary artery disease. Separate models were created for total WMH, deep WMH, PVWMH, and cuff volumes, each, as dependent variables, across coronary computed tomography angiography variables, adjusted for covariates.
Mean age was 51 years ±10, with 58% women and 39% African American people. Participants with any coronary plaque had 52% larger WMH volumes than those without plaque (95% CI, 0.24–0.59). Per 1% greater coronary plaque volume, total WMH volumes were 0.07% larger (95% CI, 0.04–0.10). Every 1% higher total coronary plaque volume was associated with 5.03% larger deep WMH volume (95% CI, 4.67–5.38), 5.10% PVWMH larger volume (95% CI, 4.72–5.48), and 2.74% larger cuff volume (95% CI, 2.38–3.09) with differences in this association when comparing deep WMH to PVWMH (P interaction, 0.001) or cuff (P interaction, <0.001), respectively.
In healthy, high-risk individuals, the presence and volume of coronary artery plaque are associated with larger WMH volumes, appearing the strongest for PVWMH. These findings in high-risk families suggest a disease relationship in 2 different vascular beds, beyond traditional risk factors, possibly due to genetic predisposition.
Platelet aggregation is heritable, and genome-wide association studies have detected strong associations with a common intronic variant of the platelet endothelial aggregation receptor1 (PEAR1) gene ...both in African American and European American individuals. In this study, we used a sequencing approach to identify additional exonic variants in PEAR1 that may also determine variability in platelet aggregation in the GeneSTAR Study. A 0.3 Mb targeted region on chromosome 1q23.1 including the entire PEAR1 gene was Sanger sequenced in 104 subjects (45% male, 49% African American, age = 52±13) selected on the basis of hyper- and hypo- aggregation across three different agonists (collagen, epinephrine, and adenosine diphosphate). Single-variant and multi-variant burden tests for association were performed. Of the 235 variants identified through sequencing, 61 were novel, and three of these were missense variants. More rare variants (MAF<5%) were noted in African Americans compared to European Americans (108 vs. 45). The common intronic GWAS-identified variant (rs12041331) demonstrated the most significant association signal in African Americans (p = 4.020×10(-4)); no association was seen for additional exonic variants in this group. In contrast, multi-variant burden tests indicated that exonic variants play a more significant role in European Americans (p = 0.0099 for the collective coding variants compared to p = 0.0565 for intronic variant rs12041331). Imputation of the individual exonic variants in the rest of the GeneSTAR European American cohort (N = 1,965) supports the results noted in the sequenced discovery sample: p = 3.56×10(-4), 2.27×10(-7), 5.20×10(-5) for coding synonymous variant rs56260937 and collagen, epinephrine and adenosine diphosphate induced platelet aggregation, respectively. Sequencing approaches confirm that a common intronic variant has the strongest association with platelet aggregation in African Americans, and show that exonic variants play an additional role in platelet aggregation in European Americans.
Recent randomized trials suggest that women may not accrue the same cardioprotective benefits as men do from low-dose aspirin therapy used in primary prevention. Failure of aspirin to suppress ...platelet aggregation in women is one hypothesized mechanism.
To examine differential platelet reactivity to low-dose aspirin therapy by sex.
A clinical trial of aspirin at 81 mg/d for 14 days was conducted in 571 men and 711 women. Baseline and post-aspirin therapy measures included platelet aggregation to arachidonic acid, adenosine diphosphate, epinephrine, and platelet function analyzer closure time.
Sex differences in cyclooxygenase 1 (COX-1) direct and indirect platelet activation pathways before and after administration of aspirin.
In 10 of the 12 platelet agonist exposures, women's platelets were significantly more reactive at baseline. However, after aspirin therapy, the percent aggregation to arachidonic acid (the direct COX-1 pathway) decreased more in women than in men (P<.001) and demonstrated near total suppression of residual platelet reactivity in both men and women. In COX-1 indirect pathways, women experienced the same or more platelet inhibition than men in 8 of the 9 assays yet retained modestly greater platelet reactivity after aspirin therapy. In multivariable analysis, female sex significantly predicted aggregation to 2 muM and 10 muM of adenosine diphosphate (P = .02 and <.001, respectively) and collagen at 5 mug/mL (P<.001) independent of risk factors, age, race, menopausal status, and hormone therapy.
Women experienced the same or greater decreases in platelet reactivity after aspirin therapy, retaining modestly more platelet reactivity compared with men. However, most women achieved total suppression of aggregation in the direct COX-1 pathway, the putative mechanism for aspirin's cardioprotection.
Background The periventricular white matter is more sensitive to the systemic hemodynamic alterations than the deep white matter because of differences in its vascular structure and systemic ...circulation relationship. We hypothesize that periventricular white matter hyperintensity (PVWMH) volume shows greater association than deep white matter hyperintensity (DWMH) volume with vascular properties (VPs) reflecting arterial stiffness and cardiovascular remodeling, indicators of the systemic circulation. Methods and Results A total of 426 participants (age, 59.0±6.1 years; 57.5% women; and 39.7% Black race) in the Genetic Study of Atherosclerosis Risk who were aged ≥50 years and had brain magnetic resonance imaging were studied. VPs included pulse pressure, hypertensive response to exercise, diastolic brachial artery diameter, diastolic common carotid artery diameter, common carotid artery distensibility coefficient, and left ventricular function. The relative associations of VPs with PVWMH and DWMH as multiple measures within the same individual were determined using multilevel linear models. We also determined if age modified the differences in VPs associations with PVWMH and DWMH. Our findings indicated that, within the same subject, PVWMH volume had greater association than DWMH volume with pulse pressure (
=0.002), hypertensive response to exercise (
=0.04), diastolic brachial artery diameter (
=0.012), and diastolic common carotid artery diameter (
=0.04), independent of age and cardiovascular risk factors. The differences of PVWMH versus DWMH associations with VPs did not differ at any age threshold. Conclusions We show, for the first time, that PVWMH has greater association than DWMH, independent of age, with vascular measurements of arterial stiffness and cardiovascular remodeling suggesting that changes in the systemic circulation affect the PVWMH and DWMH differently.
Studies of recombination and how it varies depend crucially on accurate recombination maps. We propose a new approach for constructing high-resolution maps of relative recombination rates based on ...the observation of ancestry switch points among admixed individuals. We show the utility of this approach using simulations and by applying it to SNP genotype data from a sample of 2,565 African Americans and 299 African Caribbeans and detecting several hundred thousand recombination events. Comparison of the inferred map with high-resolution maps from non-admixed populations provides evidence of fine-scale differentiation in recombination rates between populations. Overall, the admixed map is well predicted by the average proportion of admixture and the recombination rate estimates from the source populations. The exceptions to this are in areas surrounding known large chromosomal structural variants, specifically inversions. These results suggest that outside of structurally variable regions, admixture does not substantially disrupt the factors controlling recombination rates in humans.
Background
There is interest in deriving megakaryocytes (MKs) from pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) for biological studies. We previously found that genomic structural integrity and genotype concordance ...is maintained in iPSC‐derived MKs.
Objective
To establish a comprehensive dataset of genes and proteins expressed in iPSC‐derived MKs.
Methods
iPSCs were reprogrammed from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (MNCs) and MKs were derived from the iPSCs in 194 healthy European American and African American subjects. mRNA was isolated and gene expression measured by RNA sequencing. Protein expression was measured in 62 of the subjects using mass spectrometry.
Results and Conclusions
MKs expressed genes and proteins known to be important in MK and platelet function and demonstrated good agreement with previous studies in human MKs derived from CD34+ progenitor cells. The percent of cells expressing the MK markers CD41 and CD42a was consistent in biological replicates, but variable across subjects, suggesting that unidentified subject‐specific factors determine differentiation of MKs from iPSCs. Gene and protein sets important in platelet function were associated with increasing expression of CD41/42a, while those related to more basic cellular functions were associated with lower CD41/42a expression. There was differential gene expression by the sex and race (but not age) of the subject. Numerous genes and proteins were highly expressed in MKs but not known to play a role in MK or platelet function; these represent excellent candidates for future study of hematopoiesis, platelet formation, and/or platelet function.
Obesity results from the interaction of genetic and environmental factors. To search for sequence variants that affect variation in two common measures of obesity, weight and body mass index (BMI), ...both of which are highly heritable, we performed a genome-wide association (GWA) study with 305,846 SNPs typed in 25,344 Icelandic, 2,998 Dutch, 1,890 European Americans and 1,160 African American subjects and combined the results with previously published results from the Diabetes Genetics Initiative (DGI) on 3,024 Scandinavians. We selected 43 variants in 19 regions for follow-up in 5,586 Danish individuals and compared the results to a genome-wide study on obesity-related traits from the GIANT consortium. In total, 29 variants, some correlated, in 11 chromosomal regions reached a genome-wide significance threshold of P < 1.6 x 10(-7). This includes previously identified variants close to or in the FTO, MC4R, BDNF and SH2B1 genes, in addition to variants at seven loci not previously connected with obesity.
Adult human height is one of the classical complex human traits. We searched for sequence variants that affect height by scanning the genomes of 25,174 Icelanders, 2,876 Dutch, 1,770 European ...Americans and 1,148 African Americans. We then combined these results with previously published results from the Diabetes Genetics Initiative on 3,024 Scandinavians and tested a selected subset of SNPs in 5,517 Danes. We identified 27 regions of the genome with one or more sequence variants showing significant association with height. The estimated effects per allele of these variants ranged between 0.3 and 0.6 cm and, taken together, they explain around 3.7% of the population variation in height. The genes neighboring the identified loci cluster in biological processes related to skeletal development and mitosis. Association to three previously reported loci are replicated in our analyses, and the strongest association was with SNPs in the ZBTB38 gene.
Platelet function mediates both beneficial and harmful effects on human health, but few genes are known to contribute to variability in this process. We tested association of 2.5 million SNPs with ...platelet aggregation responses to three agonists (ADP, epinephrine and collagen) in two cohorts of European ancestry (N ≤ 2,753 in the Framingham Heart Study, N ≤ 1,238 in the Genetic Study of Atherosclerosis Risk). We identified associations of seven loci with platelet aggregation near or within GP6 (P = 4.6 × 10−13), PEAR1 (P = 3.4 × 10−12), ADRA2A (P = 3.3 × 10−11), PIK3CG (P = 3.1 × 10−9), JMJD1C (P = 1.6 × 10−8), MRVI1 (P = 2.0 × 10−8) and SHH (P = 4.5 × 10−8). Six of these loci replicated at P < 0.05 in an additional African-American cohort (N ≤ 840 in the Genetic Study of Atherosclerosis Risk). These results provide insights into platelet aggregation pathways and may suggest new antiplatelet therapeutic targets.
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