Genetic Determinants of Lipid Traits in Diverse Populations from the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Study

For the past five years, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified hundreds of common variants associated with human diseases and traits, including high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and triglyceride (TG) levels. Approximately 95 loci associated with lipid levels have been identified primarily among populations of European ancestry. The Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study was established in 2008 to characterize GWAS–identified variants in diverse population-based studies. We genotyped 49 GWAS–identified SNPs associated with one or more lipid traits in at least two PAGE studies and across six racial/ethnic groups. We performed a meta-analysis testing for SNP associations with fasting HDL-C, LDL-C, and ln(TG) levels in self-identified European American (∼20,000), African American (∼9,000), American Indian (∼6,000), Mexican American/Hispanic (∼2,500), Japanese/East Asian (∼690), and Pacific Islander/Native Hawaiian (∼175) adults, regardless of lipid-lowering medication use. We replicated 55 of 60 (92%) SNP associations tested in European Americans at p
Author Summary Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and triglyceride (TG) levels are well known independent risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Lipid-associated genetic variants are being discovered in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in samples of European descent, but an insufficient amount of data exist in other populations. Therefore, there is a strong need to characterize the effect of these GWAS–identified variants in more diverse cohorts. In this study, we selected over forty genetic loci previously associated with lipid levels and tested for replication in a large European American cohort. We also investigated if the effect of these variants generalizes to non-European descent populations, including African Americans, American Indians, and Mexican Americans/Hispanics. A majority of these GWAS–identified associations replicated in our European American cohort. However, the ability of associations to generalize across other racial/ethnic populations varied greatly, indicating that some of these GWAS–identified variants may not be functional and are more likely to be in linkage disequilibrium with the functional variant(s).