Pathway analysis of body mass index genome-wide association study highlights risk pathways in cardiovascular disease.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. It is reported that body mass index (BMI) is risk factor for CVD. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have recently provided rapid insights into genetics of CVD and its risk factors. However, the specific mechanisms how BMI influences CVD risk are largely unknown. We think that BMI may influences CVD risk by shared genetic pathways. In order to confirm this view, we conducted a pathway analysis of BMI GWAS, which examined approximately 329,091 single nucleotide polymorphisms from 4763 samples. We identified 31 significant KEGG pathways. There is literature evidence supporting the involvement of GnRH signaling, vascular smooth muscle contraction, dilated cardiomyopathy, Gap junction, Wnt signaling, Calcium signaling and Chemokine signaling in CVD. Collectively, our study supports the potential role of the CVD risk pathways in BMI. BMI may influence CVD risk by the shared genetic pathways. We believe that our results may advance our understanding of BMI mechanisms in CVD.
Department of Cardiac Surgery, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Wenhuaxi Road, Jinan, China.
Xin
X
Zhao
Department of Cardiology, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang,150001, China.
Jinxia
J
Gu
Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University. Harbin, Heilongjiang, 150001, China.
Ming
M
Li
Department of Cardiac Surgery, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Wenhuaxi Road, Jinan, China.
Jie
J
Xi
Department of Cardiac Surgery, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Wenhuaxi Road, Jinan, China.
Wenyu
W
Sun
Department of Cardiac Surgery, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Wenhuaxi Road, Jinan, China.
Guangmin
G
Song
Genome Analysis Laboratory, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.
Guiyou
G
Liu
D015992:Body Mass Index; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000235:genetics*; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006801:Humans