GSE201571
FHL5 cofactor mediates vascular disease risk by regulating smooth muscle cell transcriptional networks [RNA-seq]
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified hundreds of loci associated with vascular diseases such as coronary artery disease (CAD) and myocardial infarction (MI), and hypertension. However, the biological roles for many of these loci enriched in the vessel wall remains unknown. Among these, UFL1-FHL5 (chr6q16.1) emerged as a genome-wide significant locus in a recent CAD/MI meta-analysis. Here, we use an integrative approach leveraging human genetics, epigenomic profiling, and in vitro functional and ex vivo imaging analyses to prioritize FHL5 as the top candidate causal gene and reveal the molecular mechanisms of its pleiotropic genetic associations. Notably, FHL5 overexpression in coronary artery smooth muscle cells (SMC) increased vascular calcification and dysregulated processes related to extracellular matrix organization and calcium handling. Lastly, by mapping FHL5 binding sites genome-wide using CUT&RUN, we identified regulatory interactions with downstream disease loci having putative roles in SMC phenotypic modulation. Together, these trans-acting mechanisms may account for a portion of the heritable risk for CAD/MI and other complex vascular diseases. Overall design: Bulk RNA-seq of 500,000 HA, FHL5, FHL5-NLS overexpressing HCASMC-hTERT was performed under basal conditions. Paired-end sequencing (42bp x 2) was performed on the Illumina NextSeq 500 instrument.