A Pooling Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies Susceptibility Loci and Signaling Pathways of Immune Thrombocytopenia in Chinese Han Population

Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an acquired bleeding disease due to immune-mediated destruction of antilogous platelets and ineffective thrombopoiesis. Although the etiology of ITP remains unknown, genetic variants are thought to predispose individuals to the disease. Several candidate gene analyses have identified several loci that increased ITP susceptibility, but no systematic genetic analysis on a genome-wide scope. To extend the genetic evidence and to identify novel candidates of ITP, we performed a pooling genome-wide association study (GWAS) by IlluminaHumanOmniZhongHua-8 combining pathway analysis in 200 ITP cases and 200 controls from Chinese Han population (CHP). The results revealed that 4 novel loci (rs117503120, rs5998634, rs4483616, and rs16866133) were strongly associated with ITP (P