Genome-wide association study identifies klotho and other novel loci as contributors to BMD variation in postmenopausal women

Osteoporosis is a highly heritable disease, with estimates of genetic contribution to variance of BMD up to 80%. Genetic studies aiming to identify loci influencing BMD variation have had little success to date, largely due to inadequate power to detect the genes of small to moderate effect size likely to be involved. Adequately powered genome-wide association studies [GWAS] have successfully identified disease-associated genes in complex polygenic disorders. We performed a GWAS to search for BMD loci.