International GWAS Consortium Identifies Novel Loci Associated with Blood Pressure in Children and Adolescents

Background —Our aim was to identify genetic variants associated with blood pressure (BP) in childhood and adolescence. Methods and Results —Genome-wide association study data from participating European ancestry cohorts of the EAGLE ( EA rly G enetics and L ifecourse E pidemiology) Consortium was meta-analysed across three 'epochs'; pre-puberty [4-7 years], puberty [8-12 years] and post-puberty [13-20 years]. Two novel loci were identified as having genome-wide associations with systolic blood pressure across specific age epochs; rs1563894 ( ITGA11, located in active H3K27Ac mark and transcription factor CHiP and CpG methylation site ) during pre-puberty ( p = 2.86 × 10-8) and rs872256 during puberty ( p = 8.67 × 10-9). Several SNP 'clusters' were also associated with childhood BP at p < 5 × 10-3. Using a p-value threshold of < 5 × 10-3 we found some overlap in variants across the different age epochs within our study, and between several SNPs in any of the three epochs and adult BP related SNPs. Conclusions —Our results suggest that genetic determinants of blood pressure act from childhood, develop over the lifecourse, and show some evidence of age-specific effects.