Abstract
BackgroundIndividuals of African descent in the United States suffer disproportionately from diseases with a metabolic etiology (obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes), and from the pathological consequences of these disorders (hypertension and cardiovascular disease).Methodology/Principal FindingsUsing a combination of genetic/genomic and bioinformatics approaches, we identified a large number of genes that were both differentially expressed between American subjects self-identified to be of either African or European ancestry and that also contained single nucleotide polymorphisms that distinguish distantly related ancestral populations. Several of these genes control the metabolism of simple carbohydrates and are direct targets for the SREBP1, a metabolic transcription factor also differentially expressed between our study populations.Conclusions/SignificanceThese data support the concept of stable patterns of gene transcription unique to a geographic ancestral lineage. Differences in expression of several carbohydrate metabolism genes suggest both genetic and transcriptional mechanisms contribute to these patterns and may play a role in exacerbating the disproportionate levels of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease observed in Americans with African ancestry.
Highlights
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are multifactorial conditions with strong genetic and environmental influences [1,2]
The decreased expression of these genes in the AA cohort was notable because of the increased plasma fructosamine levels in these same subjects (Table 1). These results suggest that differences in glucose metabolism between Americans of African and European may reside at the transcriptional level
There were 3241 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) found in the 151 geo-ancestral genes, 106 of which associated with expression at a p,0.01 with the remainder at p$0.01. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008183.g006
Summary
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are multifactorial conditions with strong genetic and environmental influences [1,2]. Despite many advances in diagnosis and treatment, significant challenges remain in understanding, treating and possibly preventing these conditions [3]. Most forms of CVD are multi-factorial, influenced by genetic predispositions as well as environmental factors. Whereas individual risk factors often lack significance in terms of predictive power for any given illness, assessment of several risk factors allows appropriate medical interventions both for prevention and treatment of CVD [6]. Individuals of African descent in the United States suffer disproportionately from diseases with a metabolic etiology (obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes), and from the pathological consequences of these disorders (hypertension and cardiovascular disease)
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