Epigenetic Patterns in Blood Associated With Lipid Traits Predict Incident Coronary Heart Disease Events and Are Enriched for Results From Genome-Wide Association Studies. (February 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hedman, Åsa K.; Mendelson, Michael M.; Marioni, Riccardo E.; Gustafsson, Stefan; Joehanes, Roby; Irvin, Marguerite R.; Zhi, Degui; Sandling, Johanna K.; Yao, Chen; Liu, Chunyu; Liang, Liming; Huan, Tianxiao; McRae, Allan F.; Demissie, Serkalem; Shah, Sonia; Starr, John M.; Cupples, L. Adrienne; Deloukas, Panos; Spector, Timothy D.; Sundström, Johan; Krauss, Ronald M.; Arnett, Donna K.; Deary, Ian J.; Lind, Lars; Levy, Daniel; Ingelsson, Erik
• Is Part Of: Circulation. Volume 10:Number 1(2017)
• Publication Date: 2017-02
• Subjects: cardiovascular diseases -- DNA Methylation -- epigenomics -- gene expression -- lipids; Arrhythmia -- Periodicals; Heart -- Electric properties -- Periodicals; 616.1042
• DOI: 10.1161/CIRCGENETICS.116.001487
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1942-325X

Abstract

Abstract : Background—: Genome-wide association studies have identified loci influencing circulating lipid concentrations in humans; further information on novel contributing genes, pathways, and biology may be gained through studies of epigenetic modifications. Methods and Results—: To identify epigenetic changes associated with lipid concentrations, we assayed genome-wide DNA methylation at cytosine–guanine dinucleotides (CpGs) in whole blood from 2306 individuals from 2 population-based cohorts, with replication of findings in 2025 additional individuals. We identified 193 CpGs associated with lipid levels in the discovery stage ( P <1.08E-07) and replicated 33 (at Bonferroni-corrected P <0.05), including 25 novel CpGs not previously associated with lipids. Genes at lipid-associated CpGs were enriched in lipid and amino acid metabolism processes. A differentially methylated locus associated with triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C; cg27243685; P =8.1E-26 and 9.3E-19) was associated with cis -expression of a reverse cholesterol transporter ( ABCG1; P =7.2E-28) and incident cardiovascular disease events (hazard ratio per SD increment, 1.38; 95% confidence interval, 1.15–1.66; P =0.0007). We found significant cis -methylation quantitative trait loci at 64% of the 193 CpGs with an enrichment of signals from genome-wide association studies of lipid levels ( P TC =0.004, P HDL-C =0.008 and P triglycerides =0.00003) and coronary heart disease ( P =0.0007). For example, genome-wide significant variants associated with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and coronary heart disease at APOB were cis -methylation quantitative trait loci for a low-density lipoprotein cholesterol–related differentially methylated locus. Conclusions—: We report novel associations of DNA methylation with lipid levels, describe epigenetic mechanisms related to previous genome-wide association studies discoveries, and provide evidence implicating epigenetic regulation of reverse cholesterol transport in blood in relation to occurrence of cardiovascular disease events. Abstract : Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text.