Gene-environment interaction for childhood asthma and exposure to farming in Central Europe - 10/08/11
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Abstract |
Background |
Asthma is a disease in which both genetic and environmental factors play important roles. The farming environment has consistently been associated with protection from childhood asthma and atopy, and interactions have been reported with polymorphisms in innate immunity genes.
Objective |
To detect gene-environment interactions for asthma and atopy in the farming environment.
Methods |
We performed a genome-wide interaction analysis for asthma and atopy by using 500,000 genotyped single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and farm-related exposures in 1708 children from 4 rural regions of Central Europe. We also tested selectively for interactions between farm exposures and 7 SNPs that emerged as genome-wide significant in a large meta-analysis of childhood asthma and 5 SNPs that had been reported previously as interacting with farm exposures for asthma or atopy.
Results |
Neither the asthma-associated SNPs nor the SNPs previously published for interactions with asthma showed significant interactions. The genome-wide interaction study did not reveal any significant interactions with SNPs within genes in the range of interacting allele frequencies from 30% to 70%, for which our study was well powered. Among rarer SNPs, we identified 15 genes with strong interactions for asthma or atopy in relation to farming, contact with cows and straw, or consumption of raw farm milk.
Conclusion |
Common genetic polymorphisms are unlikely to moderate the protective influence of the farming environment on childhood asthma and atopy, but rarer variants, particularly of the glutamate receptor, metabotropic 1 gene, may do so. Given the limited statistical power of our study, these findings should be interpreted with caution before being replicated in independent farm populations.
Le texte complet de cet article est disponible en PDF.Key words : Childhood asthma, atopy, GWAS, gene-by-environment interaction, candidate genes
Abbreviations used : aOR, GAS7, GE, GRM1, GWAS, IOR, logOR, OR, SNP, TLR
Plan
Supported by the European Commission as part of GABRIEL (a multidisciplinary study to identify the genetic and environmental causes of asthma in the European Community) contract number 018996 under the Integrated Program LSH-2004-1.2.5-1. M.J.E received the Stephan-Weiland Fellowship of the GABRIEL consortium. |
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Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: M. J. Ege has received research support from the European Union, the German Research Foundation (DFG), and the Behring-Röntgen Foundation. I. Gut has received research support from the European Commission (through Project GABRIEL) and the Wellcome Trust. M. Kabesch has received remuneration in the form of grants, honoraria, or consulting fees from Roxall, Glaxo Wellcome, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, MSD, and Allergopharma and has received research support from the DFG, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, and the European Union. D. Heederik has received research support from the European Union. E. von Mutius has consulted for Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Protectimmun, and UCB and has received research support from Airsonett AB. M. Depner has received research support from the European Commission. R. Lauener has received research support from the European Union and the Kühne Foundation. J. Weber has received research support from the European Commission. The rest of the authors have declared that they have no conflict of interest. |
Vol 127 - N° 1
P. 138 - janvier 2011 Retour au numéroBienvenue sur EM-consulte, la référence des professionnels de santé.
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