Individual sensitivity of cold pressor, environmental meteorological factors associated with blood pressure and its fluctuation.

Previous studies have examined the associations of meteorological factors with blood pressure; however, these associations have not fully elucidated, especially lacking of evidence from cohort study, little information about the associations of cold pressor sensitivity with blood pressure and its fluctuation. The objective of this study was to investigate the outdoor and indoor temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, and cold pressor sensitivity with blood pressure and its fluctuation. Forty-eight healthy subjects were recruited, and response of blood pressure to cold exposure was measured with cold pressor test (CPT). Then, all the subjects were followed up, and blood pressure was measured every half a month in a period of consecutive 12 months. Multiple panel analysis with random-effects generalized least squares (GLS) regression was used to analyze the effect of the outdoor and indoor temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, and response to cold pressor exposure on blood pressure. Outdoor and indoor temperature and humidity were found to be independently associated with blood pressure (all the P values < 0.05). The response to cold exposure positively associated with blood pressure and its fluctuation (P < 0.05). The subjects with higher cold pressor sensitivity had about 4.7 mmHg higher maximum difference of SBP in 1 year than the subjects with lower sensitivity. Outdoor and indoor temperature, humidity, and response to cold exposure are associated with blood pressure and its fluctuation. These findings provided extending evidence on blood pressure management in clinic and preventive practice.

Screening of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL)-associated SNPs and the assessment of its genetic susceptibility.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to screen for noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL)-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and to construct genetic risk prediction models for NIHL in a Chinese population. METHODS: Four hundred seventy-six subjects with NIHL and 476 matched controls were recruited from a cross-sectional survey on NIHL in China. A total of 83 candidate SNPs were genotyped using nanofluidic dynamic arrays on a Fluidigm platform. NIHL-associated SNPs were screened with a multiple logistic model, and a genetic risk model was constructed based on the genetic risk score (GRS). The results were validated using a prospective cohort population. RESULTS: Seven SNPs in the CDH23, PCDH15, EYA4, MYO1A, KCNMA1, and OTOG genes were significantly (P < 0.05) associated with the risk of NIHL, whereas seven other SNPs were marginally (P > 0.05 and P < 0.1) associated with the risk of NIHL. A positive correlation was observed between GRS values and odds ratio (OR) for NIHL. Two SNPs, namely, rs212769 and rs7910544, were validated in the cohort study. Subjects with higher GRS (≧9) showed a higher risk of NIHL incidence with an OR of 2.00 (95% CI = 1.04, 3.86). CONCLUSIONS: Genetic susceptibility plays an important role in the incidence of NIHL. GRS values, which are based on NIHL-associated SNPs. GRS may be utilized in the evaluation of genetic risk for NIHL and in the determination of NIHL susceptibility.

A novel variant associated with HDL-C levels by modifying DAGLB expression levels: An annotation-based genome-wide association study.

Although numbers of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been performed for serum lipid levels, limited heritability has been explained. Studies showed that combining data from GWAS and expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) signals can both enhance the discovery of trait-associated SNPs and gain a better understanding of the mechanism. We performed an annotation-based, multistage genome-wide screening for serum-lipid-level-associated loci in totally 6863 Han Chinese. A serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) associated variant rs1880118 (hg19 chr7:g. 6435220G>C) was replicated (Pcombined = 1.4E-10). rs1880118 was associated with DAGLB (diacylglycerol lipase, beta) expression levels in subcutaneous adipose tissue (P = 5.9E-42) and explained 47.7% of the expression variance. After the replication, an active segment covering variants tagged by rs1880118 near 5' of DAGLB was annotated using histone modification and transcription factor binding signals. The luciferase report assay revealed that the segment containing the minor alleles showed increased transcriptional activity compared with segment contains the major alleles, which was consistent with the eQTL analyses. The expression-trait association tests indicated the association between the DAGLB and serum HDL-C levels using gene-based approaches called "TWAS" (P = 3.0E-8), "SMR" (P = 1.1E-4), and "Sherlock" (P = 1.6E-6). To summarize, we identified a novel HDL-C-associated variant which explained nearly half of the expression variance of DAGLB. Integrated analyses established a genotype-gene-phenotype three-way association and expanded our knowledge of DAGLB in lipid metabolism.

Noise exposure in occupational setting associated with elevated blood pressure in China.

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is the primary out-auditory adverse outcome caused due to occupational noise exposure. This study investigated the associations of noise exposure in an occupational setting with blood pressure and risk of hypertension. METHODS: A total of 1,390 occupational noise-exposed workers and 1399 frequency matched non-noise-exposed subjects were recruited from a cross-sectional survey of occupational noise-exposed and the general population, respectively. Blood pressure was measured using a mercury sphygmomanometer following a standard protocol. Multiple logistic regression was used to calculate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of noise exposure adjusted by potential confounders. RESULTS: Noise-exposed subjects had significantly higher levels of systolic blood pressure(SBP) (125.1 ± 13.9 mm Hg) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (77.6 ± 10.7 mm Hg) than control subjects (SBP: 117.2 ± 15.7 mm Hg, DBP: 70.0 ± 10.5 mm Hg) (P < 0.001). Significant correlations were found between noise exposure and blood pressure (SBP and DBP) (P < 0.001). However, the linear regression coefficients with DBP appeared larger than those with SBP. The prevalence of hypertension was 17.8% in subjects with noise exposure and 9.0% in control group (P < 0.001). Compared with the control group, the subjects with noise exposure had the risk of hypertension with an OR of 1.941 (95% CI = 1.471- 2.561) after adjusting for age, sex, smoking, and drinking status. Dose-response relationships were found between noise intensity, years of noise exposure, cumulative noise exposure and the risk of hypertension (all P values < 0.05). No significant difference was found between subjects wearing an earplug and those not wearing an earplug, and between steady and unsteady noise categories (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Occupational noise exposure was associated with higher levels of SBP, DBP, and the risk of hypertension. These findings indicate that effective and feasible measures should be implemented to reduce the risk of hypertension caused by occupational noise exposure.

A novel variant on chromosome 6p21.1 is associated with the risk of developing colorectal cancer: a two-stage case-control study in Han Chinese.

BACKGROUND: Genes in inflammatory pathways play a pivotal role in the development of colorectal cancer. We conducted a two-stage case-control study and aimed at screening the colorectal cancer-associated genetic variations in inflammatory genes. METHODS: Twenty-three candidate variants were genotyped in 952 primary colorectal cancer cases and 875 cancer-free controls from eastern China. Promising single nucleotide polymorphisms were further genotyped in 518 cases and 554 controls from middle China. Expression quantitative trait loci and differential gene expression analyses were performed for the associated gene. RESULTS: rs2282151 presented consistently significant associations with the risk of colorectal cancer in both stages (odds ratio (95 % confidence interval) = 1.30 (1.16-1.46), risk allele = C, P combined = 8.9E-6). Gene expression quantitative trait loci analyzes uncovered consistent cis-regulatory signals which showed that the C allele of rs2282151 was associated with increased expression level of heat shock protein 90 alpha family class B member 1 (HSP90AB1). Then we found that the mRNA expression levels of HSP90AB1 were significantly higher in tumor tissues than normal tissues (fold-change = 1.83) in 28 pairs of colorectal tissue samples. The expression difference was consistent with data from online datasets. Additionally, we observed notable peaks of H3K27ac and H3K4me3 near the first intron of HSP90AB1 using ChIP-seq data from multiple cell lines (including HCT116). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that the C allele of the novel colorectal cancer-associated variant rs2282151 is associated with increased expression levels of HSP90AB1, which is expressed higher in colorectal tumor tissues than in normal tissues.