A genome-wide association study of saturated, mono- and polyunsaturated red blood cell fatty acids in the Framingham Heart Offspring Study.

Most genome-wide association studieshave explored relationships between genetic variants and plasma phospholipid fatty acidproportions, but few have examined apparent genetic influences on the membrane fatty acidprofile of red blood cells (RBC). Using RBC fatty aciddata from the Framingham Offspring Study, we analyzed over 2.5 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for association with 14 RBC fatty acidsidentifying 191 different SNPs associated with at least 1 fatty acid. Significant associations (p 11%) fatty acids, but only 1–3% in 4 low abundance (<3%) fatty acids, with the notable exception of dihomo- gamma linolenic acidwith 53% of variance explained by SNPs. Further studies are needed to determine the extent to which variations in these genes influence tissue fatty acidcontent and pathways modulated by fatty acids.