Recent genome-wide association studies have identified various genetic variants associated with hematological traits. Although it is possible that quantitative data of hematological traits are varied among the years examined, conventional genome-wide association studies have been conducted in a cross-sectional manner that measures traits at a single point in time. To address this issue, we have traced blood profiles in 4,884 Japanese individuals who underwent annual health check-ups for several years. In the present study, longitudinal exome-wide association studies were conducted to identify genetic variants related to 13 hematological phenotypes. The generalized estimating equation model showed that a total of 67 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were significantly [false discovery rate (FDR) of <0.01] associated with hematological phenotypes. Of the 67 SNPs, nine SNPs were identified as novel hematological markers: rs4686683 of SENP2 for red blood cell count (FDR = 0.008, P = 5.5 × 10-6); rs3917688 of SELP for mean corpuscular volume (FDR = 0.005, P = 2.4 × 10-6); rs3133745 of C8orf37-AS1 for white blood cell count (FDR = 0.003, P = 1.3 × 10-6); rs13121954 at 4q31.2 for basophil count (FDR = 0.007, P = 3.1 × 10-5); rs7584099 at 2q22.3 (FDR = 2.6 × 10-5, P = 8.8 × 10-8), rs1579219 of HCG17 (FDR = 0.003, P = 2.0 × 10-5), and rs10757049 of DENND4C (FDR = 0.008, P = 5.6 × 10-5) for eosinophil count; rs12338 of CTSB for neutrophil count (FDR = 0.007, P = 2.9 × 10-5); and rs395967 of OSMR-AS1 for monocyte count (FDR = 0.008, P = 3.2 × 10-5).
Keywords: exome-wide association study; generalized estimating equation; hematological trait; linkage disequilibrium; longitudinal data.