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Nalls MA, Couper DJ, Tanaka T, van Rooij FJA, Chen MH, Smith AV, Toniolo D, Zakai NA, Yang Q, Greinacher A, Wood AR, Garcia M, Gasparini P, Liu Y, Lumley T, Folsom AR, Reiner AP, Gieger C, Lagou V, Felix JF, Völzke H, Gouskova NA, Biffi A, Döring A, Völker U, Chong S, Wiggins KL, Rendon A, Dehghan A, Moore M, Taylor K, Wilson JG, Lettre G, Hofman A, Bis JC, Pirastu N, Fox CS, Meisinger C, Sambrook J, Arepalli S, Nauck M, Prokisch H, Stephens J, Glazer NL, Cupples LA, Okada Y, Takahashi A, Kamatani Y, Matsuda K, Tsunoda T, Tanaka T, Kubo M, Nakamura Y, Yamamoto K, Kamatani N, Stumvoll M, Tönjes A, Prokopenko I, Illig T, Patel KV, Garner SF, Kuhnel B, Mangino M, Oostra BA, Thein SL, Coresh J, Wichmann HE, Menzel S, Lin J, Pistis G, Uitterlinden AG, Spector TD, Teumer A, Eiriksdottir G, Gudnason V, Bandinelli S, Frayling TM, Chakravarti A, van Duijn CM, Melzer D, Ouwehand WH, Levy D, Boerwinkle E, Singleton AB, Hernandez DG, Longo DL, Soranzo N, Witteman JCM, Psaty BM, Ferrucci L, Harris TB, O'Donnell CJ, Ganesh SK. Multiple loci are associated with white blood cell phenotypes. PLoS Genet 2011; 7:e1002113. [PMID: 21738480 PMCID: PMC3128114 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002113] [Citation(s) in RCA: 99] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2010] [Accepted: 04/17/2011] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
White blood cell (WBC) count is a common clinical measure from complete blood count assays, and it varies widely among healthy individuals. Total WBC count and its constituent subtypes have been shown to be moderately heritable, with the heritability estimates varying across cell types. We studied 19,509 subjects from seven cohorts in a discovery analysis, and 11,823 subjects from ten cohorts for replication analyses, to determine genetic factors influencing variability within the normal hematological range for total WBC count and five WBC subtype measures. Cohort specific data was supplied by the CHARGE, HeamGen, and INGI consortia, as well as independent collaborative studies. We identified and replicated ten associations with total WBC count and five WBC subtypes at seven different genomic loci (total WBC count-6p21 in the HLA region, 17q21 near ORMDL3, and CSF3; neutrophil count-17q21; basophil count- 3p21 near RPN1 and C3orf27; lymphocyte count-6p21, 19p13 at EPS15L1; monocyte count-2q31 at ITGA4, 3q21, 8q24 an intergenic region, 9q31 near EDG2), including three previously reported associations and seven novel associations. To investigate functional relationships among variants contributing to variability in the six WBC traits, we utilized gene expression- and pathways-based analyses. We implemented gene-clustering algorithms to evaluate functional connectivity among implicated loci and showed functional relationships across cell types. Gene expression data from whole blood was utilized to show that significant biological consequences can be extracted from our genome-wide analyses, with effect estimates for significant loci from the meta-analyses being highly corellated with the proximal gene expression. In addition, collaborative efforts between the groups contributing to this study and related studies conducted by the COGENT and RIKEN groups allowed for the examination of effect homogeneity for genome-wide significant associations across populations of diverse ancestral backgrounds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael A. Nalls
- Laboratory of Neurogenetics, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - David J. Couper
- Collaborative Studies Coordinating Center, Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America
| | - Toshiko Tanaka
- Longitudinal Studies Section, Clinical Research Branch, NIA, NIH, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Frank J. A. van Rooij
- Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging (NGI-NCHA), The Netherlands Genomics Initiative, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Ming-Huei Chen
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Department of Neurology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Albert V. Smith
- Icelandic Heart Association, Kopavogur, Iceland
- University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
| | - Daniela Toniolo
- Division of Genetics and Cell Biology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy
- Institute of Molecular Genetics–CNR, Pavia, Italy
| | - Neil A. Zakai
- Department of Medicine University of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, Vermont, United States of America
- Department of Pathology University of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, Vermont, United States of America
| | - Qiong Yang
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Andreas Greinacher
- Institute of Immunology and Transfusion Medicine, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Andrew R. Wood
- Genetics of Complex Traits, Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Exeter, United Kingdom
| | - Melissa Garcia
- Laboratory for Epidemiology, Demography, and Biometry, NIA, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Paolo Gasparini
- Medical Genetics, IRCCS–Burlo Garofolo/University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
| | - Yongmei Liu
- Department of Epidemiology and Prevention, Division of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States of America
| | - Thomas Lumley
- Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
| | - Aaron R. Folsom
- Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of America
| | - Alex P. Reiner
- Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
| | - Christian Gieger
- Institute of Genetic Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
| | - Vasiliki Lagou
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
- Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Janine F. Felix
- Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging (NGI-NCHA), The Netherlands Genomics Initiative, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Henry Völzke
- Community Medicine, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Natalia A. Gouskova
- University of North Carolina, School of Public Health, United States of America
| | - Alessandro Biffi
- Center for Human Genetic Research, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Angela Döring
- Institute of Epidemiology I, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
- Institute of Epidemiology II, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
| | - Uwe Völker
- Interfaculty Institute for Genetics and Functional Genomics, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Sean Chong
- Laboratory of Neurogenetics, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Kerri L. Wiggins
- Cardiovascular Health Resarch Unit and Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
| | - Augusto Rendon
- Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge and National Health Service Blood and Transplant, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Abbas Dehghan
- Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging (NGI-NCHA), The Netherlands Genomics Initiative, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Matt Moore
- Laboratory of Neurogenetics, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Kent Taylor
- Medical Genetics Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
| | - James G. Wilson
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi, United States of America
| | - Guillaume Lettre
- Montreal Heart Institute and Universite de Montreal, Montreal, Canada
| | - Albert Hofman
- Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging (NGI-NCHA), The Netherlands Genomics Initiative, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Joshua C. Bis
- Cardiovascular Health Resarch Unit and Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
| | - Nicola Pirastu
- Medical Genetics, IRCCS–Burlo Garofolo/University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
| | - Caroline S. Fox
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Division of Endocrinology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States of America
| | - Christa Meisinger
- Institute of Epidemiology II, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
| | - Jennifer Sambrook
- Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge and National Health Service Blood and Transplant, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Sampath Arepalli
- Laboratory of Neurogenetics, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Matthias Nauck
- Institute for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Holger Prokisch
- Institute of Human Genetics, Klinikum rechts der Isar, Technical University Munich, Munich, Germany
- Institute of Human Genetics, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
| | - Jonathan Stephens
- Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge and National Health Service Blood and Transplant, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Nicole L. Glazer
- Cardiovascular Health Resarch Unit and Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
| | - L. Adrienne Cupples
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Yukinori Okada
- Laboratory for Statistical Analysis, Center for Genomic Medicine (CGM), Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), Yokohama, Japan
- Department of Allergy and Rheumatology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Atsushi Takahashi
- Laboratory for Statistical Analysis, Center for Genomic Medicine (CGM), Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), Yokohama, Japan
| | | | - Koichi Matsuda
- Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Human Genome Center, Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | | | - Toshihiro Tanaka
- Laboratory for Cardiovascular Diseases, CGM, RIKEN, Yokohama, Japan
| | - Michiaki Kubo
- Laboratory for Genotyping Development, CGM, RIKEN, Yokohama, Japan
| | - Yusuke Nakamura
- Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Human Genome Center, Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Kazuhiko Yamamoto
- Department of Allergy and Rheumatology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Naoyuki Kamatani
- Laboratory for Statistical Analysis, Center for Genomic Medicine (CGM), Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), Yokohama, Japan
| | - Michael Stumvoll
- Department of Medicine, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- LIFE Study Centre, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Anke Tönjes
- Department of Medicine, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Inga Prokopenko
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
- Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Thomas Illig
- Unit for Molecular Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
| | - Kushang V. Patel
- Laboratory for Epidemiology, Demography, and Biometry, NIA, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Stephen F. Garner
- Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge and National Health Service Blood and Transplant, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Brigitte Kuhnel
- Institute of Genetic Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
| | - Massimo Mangino
- Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Ben A. Oostra
- Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging (NGI-NCHA), The Netherlands Genomics Initiative, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Department of Clinical Genetics, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Swee Lay Thein
- Molecular Haematology, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Josef Coresh
- Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - H.-Erich Wichmann
- Institute of Epidemiology I, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
- Institute of Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology, Chair of Epidemiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany
- Klinikum Grosshadern, Munich, Germany
| | - Stephan Menzel
- Molecular Haematology, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - JingPing Lin
- Office of Biostatistical Research, Division of Cardiovascular Sciences, NHLBI, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Giorgio Pistis
- Division of Genetics and Cell Biology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy
| | - André G. Uitterlinden
- Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging (NGI-NCHA), The Netherlands Genomics Initiative, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Tim D. Spector
- Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Alexander Teumer
- Interfaculty Institute for Genetics and Functional Genomics, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | | | - Vilmundur Gudnason
- Icelandic Heart Association, Kopavogur, Iceland
- University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
| | | | - Timothy M. Frayling
- Genetics of Complex Traits, Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Exeter, United Kingdom
| | - Aravinda Chakravarti
- McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Cornelia M. van Duijn
- Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging (NGI-NCHA), The Netherlands Genomics Initiative, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - David Melzer
- Epidemiology and Public Health, Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
- The European Centre for Environment and Human Health, PCMD, Truro, United Kingdom
| | - Willem H. Ouwehand
- Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge and National Health Service Blood and Transplant, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, United Kingdom
| | - Daniel Levy
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Division of Intramural Research, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Eric Boerwinkle
- Human Genetics Center, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, Texas, United States of America
| | - Andrew B. Singleton
- Laboratory of Neurogenetics, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Dena G. Hernandez
- Laboratory of Neurogenetics, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
- Department of Molecular Neuroscience and Reta Lila Laboratories, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Dan L. Longo
- Clinical Research Branch, National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Nicole Soranzo
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, United Kingdom
| | - Jacqueline C. M. Witteman
- Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging (NGI-NCHA), The Netherlands Genomics Initiative, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Bruce M. Psaty
- Departments of Epidemiology, Medicine and Health Services, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
- Group Health Research Institute, Group Health, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
| | - Luigi Ferrucci
- Longitudinal Studies Section, Clinical Research Branch, NIA, NIH, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Tamara B. Harris
- Laboratory for Epidemiology, Demography, and Biometry, NIA, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Christopher J. O'Donnell
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Division of Intramural Research, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
- Cardiology Division, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Santhi K. Ganesh
- Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America
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