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Genomics

Variations in blood lipids

Nature volume 466, pages 703–704 (2010)Cite this article

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What is the new gold standard for genome-wide association studies? As exemplified by analyses of blood lipids, it is collaboration to amass huge sample sizes and functional studies of the genes identified.

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death. In the United States, for example, it accounted for 1 in every 2.8 deaths in 2005 (ref. 1). Disruptions in the amounts of blood lipids greatly increase the risk of this disease. On page 707 of this issue, Teslovich et al.2 report on one of the largest meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies so far, involving 46 cohorts and more than 100,000 human subjects. They identify 95 distinct gene variants and/or chromosomal locations — 59 of them new — associated with lipid traits in the blood. What's more, the authors go a step further to validate the biological relevance of three of the novel genes in mice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alan R. Shuldiner and Toni I. Pollin are at the Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, Diabetes and Nutrition, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA.,

    Alan R. Shuldiner & Toni I. Pollin

  2. Alan R. Shuldiner is also at the Geriatric Research and Education Clinical Center, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Baltimore. ashuldin@medicine.umaryland.edu ,

    Alan R. Shuldiner

Authors
  1. Alan R. Shuldiner
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  2. Toni I. Pollin
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Competing interests

Alan R. Shuldiner and Toni I. Pollin are consultants for ISIS Pharmaceuticals.

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Shuldiner, A., Pollin, T. Variations in blood lipids. Nature 466, 703–704 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/466703a

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