Genome-wide association study of high-altitude pulmonary edema in Han Chinese

Abstract

High-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) is a non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema that is always found among unacclimatized persons after rapid ascent to high altitude, and HAPE is caused by the interaction of genetic and environmental factors. To screen and analyze the susceptibility genes and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of HAPE in Han Chinese, the DNA samples of 40 patients with HAPE and 33 healthy controls, who performed the reconstruction tasks from the plain region in Yushu area of Qinghai province during May of 2010 to July of 2012, were scanned by Affymetrix SNP Array 6.0 Chips in this study. Genome-wide association study (GWAS, by PLINK software) was used to screen the susceptibility genes and genetic markers, and a total of 57 SNPs were found to be significantly different between case and control groups (adjust P < 0.05). GO and Pathway enrichment analysis of 74 genes around the 57 SNPs indicated that these genes were significantly correlated with prostanoid metabolic process, arachidonic acid metabolism and nitrogen metabolism (adjust P < 0.05), which were involved in the physiopathologic mechanism of HAPE. Our studies suggest that these genetic polymorphisms and genes were associated with HAPE.