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 Early Genetics and Lifecourse Epidemiology (EAGLE) Consortium was meta-analyzed across 3 epochs; prepuberty (4-7 years), puberty (8-12 years), and postpuberty (13-20 years), Two novel loci were identified as having genome-wide associations with systolic BP across specific age epochs: rs1563894 (ITGA11, located in active H3K27Ac mark and transcription factor chromatin immunoprecipitation and 5'-C-phosphate-G-3' methylation site) during prepuberty (P=2.86x10(-8)) and rs872256 during puberty (P=8.67x10(-9)). Several single-nucleotide polymorphism clusters were also associated with childhood BP at P<5x10(-3), Using a P value threshold of <5x10(-3), we found some overlap in variants across the different age epochs within our study and between several single-nucleotide polymorphisms in any of the 3 epochs and adult BP related single-nucleotide polymorphisms. Conclusions-OurresultssuggestthatgeneticdeterminantsofBPactfromchildhood,developoverthelifecourse,andshowsomeevidence of age-specific effects.