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Pellegrino-Coppola D, Claringbould A, Stutvoet M, Boomsma DI, Ikram MA, Slagboom PE, Westra HJ, Franke L. Correction for both common and rare cell types in blood is important to identify genes that correlate with age. BMC Genomics 2021; 22:184. [PMID: 33722199 PMCID: PMC7958454 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-020-07344-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2020] [Accepted: 12/22/2020] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Aging is a multifactorial process that affects multiple tissues and is characterized by changes in homeostasis over time, leading to increased morbidity. Whole blood gene expression signatures have been associated with aging and have been used to gain information on its biological mechanisms, which are still not fully understood. However, blood is composed of many cell types whose proportions in blood vary with age. As a result, previously observed associations between gene expression levels and aging might be driven by cell type composition rather than intracellular aging mechanisms. To overcome this, previous aging studies already accounted for major cell types, but the possibility that the reported associations are false positives driven by less prevalent cell subtypes remains. RESULTS Here, we compared the regression model from our previous work to an extended model that corrects for 33 additional white blood cell subtypes. Both models were applied to whole blood gene expression data from 3165 individuals belonging to the general population (age range of 18-81 years). We evaluated that the new model is a better fit for the data and it identified fewer genes associated with aging (625, compared to the 2808 of the initial model; P ≤ 2.5⨯10-6). Moreover, 511 genes (~ 18% of the 2808 genes identified by the initial model) were found using both models, indicating that the other previously reported genes could be proxies for less abundant cell types. In particular, functional enrichment of the genes identified by the new model highlighted pathways and GO terms specifically associated with platelet activity. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that gene expression analyses in blood strongly benefit from correction for both common and rare blood cell types, and recommend using blood-cell count estimates as standard covariates when studying whole blood gene expression.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Annique Claringbould
- Department of Genetics, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Maartje Stutvoet
- Department of Genetics, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | | | - Dorret I Boomsma
- Department of Biological Psychology, Netherlands Twin Register, Amsterdam Public Health research institute and Amsterdam Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - M Arfan Ikram
- Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - P Eline Slagboom
- Department of Biomedical Data Sciences, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Harm-Jan Westra
- Department of Genetics, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Lude Franke
- Department of Genetics, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
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Boomsma DI, Wijmenga C, Slagboom EP, Swertz MA, Karssen LC, Abdellaoui A, Ye K, Guryev V, Vermaat M, van Dijk F, Francioli LC, Hottenga JJ, Laros JFJ, Li Q, Li Y, Cao H, Chen R, Du Y, Li N, Cao S, van Setten J, Menelaou A, Pulit SL, Hehir-Kwa JY, Beekman M, Elbers CC, Byelas H, de Craen AJM, Deelen P, Dijkstra M, den Dunnen JT, de Knijff P, Houwing-Duistermaat J, Koval V, Estrada K, Hofman A, Kanterakis A, Enckevort DV, Mai H, Kattenberg M, van Leeuwen EM, Neerincx PBT, Oostra B, Rivadeneira F, Suchiman EHD, Uitterlinden AG, Willemsen G, Wolffenbuttel BH, Wang J, de Bakker PIW, van Ommen GJ, van Duijn CM. The Genome of the Netherlands: design, and project goals. Eur J Hum Genet 2014; 22:221-7. [PMID: 23714750 PMCID: PMC3895638 DOI: 10.1038/ejhg.2013.118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 178] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2012] [Revised: 02/28/2013] [Accepted: 03/24/2013] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Within the Netherlands a national network of biobanks has been established (Biobanking and Biomolecular Research Infrastructure-Netherlands (BBMRI-NL)) as a national node of the European BBMRI. One of the aims of BBMRI-NL is to enrich biobanks with different types of molecular and phenotype data. Here, we describe the Genome of the Netherlands (GoNL), one of the projects within BBMRI-NL. GoNL is a whole-genome-sequencing project in a representative sample consisting of 250 trio-families from all provinces in the Netherlands, which aims to characterize DNA sequence variation in the Dutch population. The parent-offspring trios include adult individuals ranging in age from 19 to 87 years (mean=53 years; SD=16 years) from birth cohorts 1910-1994. Sequencing was done on blood-derived DNA from uncultured cells and accomplished coverage was 14-15x. The family-based design represents a unique resource to assess the frequency of regional variants, accurately reconstruct haplotypes by family-based phasing, characterize short indels and complex structural variants, and establish the rate of de novo mutational events. GoNL will also serve as a reference panel for imputation in the available genome-wide association studies in Dutch and other cohorts to refine association signals and uncover population-specific variants. GoNL will create a catalog of human genetic variation in this sample that is uniquely characterized with respect to micro-geographic location and a wide range of phenotypes. The resource will be made available to the research and medical community to guide the interpretation of sequencing projects. The present paper summarizes the global characteristics of the project.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dorret I Boomsma
- Department of Biological Psychology, VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands Twin Register, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Cisca Wijmenga
- University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Genetics, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Eline P Slagboom
- Molecular Epidemiology Section, Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Ageing, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Morris A Swertz
- University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Genetics, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Lennart C Karssen
- Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Abdel Abdellaoui
- Department of Biological Psychology, VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands Twin Register, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Kai Ye
- Molecular Epidemiology Section, Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Ageing, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Victor Guryev
- European Research Institute for the Biology of Ageing, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
- Hubrecht Institute, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Martijn Vermaat
- Netherlands Bioinformatics Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Department of Human Genetics, Center for Human and Clinical Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Genome Technology Center, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Freerk van Dijk
- University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Genetics, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Laurent C Francioli
- Department of Medical Genetics, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Jouke Jan Hottenga
- Department of Biological Psychology, VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands Twin Register, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Jeroen F J Laros
- Netherlands Bioinformatics Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Department of Human Genetics, Center for Human and Clinical Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Genome Technology Center, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | | | | | | | | | | | - Ning Li
- BGI-Europe, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | | | - Jessica van Setten
- Department of Medical Genetics, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Androniki Menelaou
- Department of Medical Genetics, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Sara L Pulit
- Department of Medical Genetics, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Jayne Y Hehir-Kwa
- Department of Human Genetics, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Marian Beekman
- Department of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Clara C Elbers
- Department of Medical Genetics, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Heorhiy Byelas
- University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Genetics, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Anton J M de Craen
- Department of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Patrick Deelen
- University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Genetics, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Martijn Dijkstra
- University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Genetics, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Johan T den Dunnen
- Department of Human Genetics, Center for Human and Clinical Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Genome Technology Center, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Peter de Knijff
- Department of Human Genetics, Center for Human and Clinical Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Genome Technology Center, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Jeanine Houwing-Duistermaat
- Department of Medical Statistics and Bioinformatics, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Vyacheslav Koval
- Erasmus Medical Centre, Genetic Laboratory Internal Medicine, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Karol Estrada
- Erasmus Medical Centre, Genetic Laboratory Internal Medicine, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Albert Hofman
- Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Alexandros Kanterakis
- University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Genetics, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | | | - Hailiang Mai
- Netherlands Bioinformatics Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Mathijs Kattenberg
- Department of Biological Psychology, VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands Twin Register, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | | | - Pieter B T Neerincx
- University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Genetics, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Ben Oostra
- Department of Clinical Genetics, Erasmus University Medical School, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Fernanodo Rivadeneira
- Erasmus Medical Centre, Genetic Laboratory Internal Medicine, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Eka H D Suchiman
- Molecular Epidemiology Section, Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Ageing, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Andre G Uitterlinden
- Erasmus Medical Centre, Genetic Laboratory Internal Medicine, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Gonneke Willemsen
- Department of Biological Psychology, VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands Twin Register, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Bruce H Wolffenbuttel
- LifeLines Cohort Study & Department of Endocrinology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Jun Wang
- BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China
- Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Paul I W de Bakker
- Department of Medical Genetics, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Gert-Jan van Ommen
- Department of Human Genetics, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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