Abstract

Central corneal thickness (CCT) is a highly heritable trait associated with complex eye diseases such as keratoconus and glaucoma. We perform a genome-wide association meta-analysis of CCT and identify 19 novel regions. In addition to adding support for known connective tissue-related pathways, pathway analyses uncover previously unreported gene sets. Remarkably, >20% of the CCT-loci are near or within Mendelian disorder genes. These included FBN1, ADAMTS2 and TGFB2 which associate with connective tissue disorders (Marfan, Ehlers-Danlos and Loeys-Dietz syndromes), and the LUM-DCN-KERA gene complex involved in myopia, corneal dystrophies and cornea plana. Using index CCT-increasing variants, we find a significant inverse correlation in effect sizes between CCT and keratoconus (r = −0.62, P = 5.30 × 10−5) but not between CCT and primary open-angle glaucoma (r = −0.17, P = 0.2). Our findings provide evidence for shared genetic influences between CCT and keratoconus, and implicate candidate genes acting in collagen and extracellular matrix regulation.

Details

Title
Cross-ancestry genome-wide association analysis of corneal thickness strengthens link between complex and Mendelian eye diseases
Author
Iglesias, Adriana I 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Mishra, Aniket 2 ; Vitart, Veronique 3 ; Bykhovskaya, Yelena 4 ; Höhn, René 5 ; Springelkamp, Henriët 6 ; Cuellar-Partida, Gabriel 7 ; Puya Gharahkhani 7   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Cooke Bailey, Jessica N 8   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Willoughby, Colin E 9 ; Li, Xiaohui 10   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Yazar, Seyhan 11 ; Nag, Abhishek 12 ; Khawaja, Anthony P 13   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Polašek, Ozren 14 ; Siscovick, David 15 ; Mitchell, Paul 16 ; Yih Chung Tham 17 ; Haines, Jonathan L 8   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Kearns, Lisa S 18 ; Hayward, Caroline 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Shi, Yuan 17 ; van Leeuwen, Elisabeth M 6 ; Taylor, Kent D 10 ; Jie Jin Wang 16 ; Rochtchina, Elena 16 ; Attia, John 19 ; Scott, Rodney 19 ; Holliday, Elizabeth G 19 ; Tien Yin Wong 18 ; Baird, Paul N 18 ; Xie, Jing 18 ; Inouye, Michael 20 ; Viswanathan, Ananth 21 ; Sim, Xueling 22 ; Bonnemaijer, Pieter 6   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Rotter, Jerome I 10 ; Martin, Nicholas G 23 ; Zeller, Tanja 24 ; Mills, Richard A 25 ; Souzeau, Emmanuelle 25 ; Staffieri, Sandra E 18   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Jonas, Jost B 26   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Schmidtmann, Irene 27 ; Boutin, Thibaud 3 ; Kang, Jae H 28   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Lucas, Sionne E M 29 ; Beutel, Manfred E 30 ; Wilson, James F 31   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; R Rand Allingham 32 ; Brilliant, Murray H 33 ; Budenz, Donald L 34 ; Christen, William G 35 ; Fingert, John 36 ; Friedman, David S 37 ; Gaasterland, Douglas 38 ; Gaasterland, Terry 39 ; Hauser, Michael A 40 ; Kraft, Peter 41 ; Lee, Richard K 42 ; Lichter, Paul R 43 ; Liu, Yutao 40 ; Loomis, Stephanie J 44 ; Moroi, Sayoko E 43 ; Pericak-Vance, Margaret A 45 ; Realini, Anthony 46 ; Richards, Julia E 43 ; Schuman, Joel S 47 ; Scott, William K 45 ; Singh, Kuldev 48 ; Sit, Arthur J 49 ; Vollrath, Douglas 50 ; Weinreb, Robert N 51 ; Wollstein, Gadi 47 ; Zack, Donald J 37 ; Zhang, Kang 51 ; Donnelly, Peter 52 ; Barroso, Ines 53 ; Blackwell, Jenefer M 54 ; Bramon, Elvira 55 ; Brown, Matthew A 56 ; Casas, Juan P 57 ; Corvin, Aiden 58 ; Deloukas, Panos 53 ; Duncanson, Audrey 59 ; Jankowski, Janusz 60 ; Markus, Hugh S 61 ; Mathew, Christopher G 62 ; Palmer, Colin N A 63 ; Plomin, Robert 64 ; Rautanen, Anna 65 ; Sawcer, Stephen J 66 ; Trembath, Richard C 62 ; Wood, Nicholas W 67 ; Spencer, Chris C A 65 ; Band, Gavin 65 ; Bellenguez, Céline 65 ; Freeman, Colin 65 ; Hellenthal, Garrett 65 ; Giannoulatou, Eleni 65 ; Pirinen, Matti 65 ; Pearson, Richard 65 ; Strange, Amy 65 ; Su, Zhan 65 ; Vukcevic, Damjan 65 ; Langford, Cordelia 53 ; Hunt, Sarah E 53 ; Edkins, Sarah 53 ; Gwilliam, Rhian 53 ; Blackburn, Hannah 53 ; Bumpstead, Suzannah J 53 ; Dronov, Serge 53 ; Gillman, Matthew 53 ; Gray, Emma 53 ; Hammond, Naomi 53 ; Jayakumar, Alagurevathi 53 ; McCann, Owen T 53 ; Liddle, Jennifer 53 ; Potter, Simon C 53 ; Radhi Ravindrarajah 53 ; Ricketts, Michelle 53 ; Waller, Matthew 53 ; Weston, Paul 53 ; Widaa, Sara 53 ; Whittaker, Pamela 53 ; Uitterlinden, André G 68 ; Vithana, Eranga N 17 ; Foster, Paul J 21   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Hysi, Pirro G 12   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Hewitt, Alex W 69   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Khor, Chiea Chuen 70   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Pasquale, Louis R 71   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Montgomery, Grant W 72   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Klaver, Caroline C W 73   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Aung, Tin 74 ; Pfeiffer, Norbert 75 ; Mackey, David A 76 ; Hammond, Christopher J 12   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Ching-Yu, Cheng 74 ; Craig, Jamie E 25 ; Rabinowitz, Yaron S 4 ; Wiggs, Janey L 44   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Burdon, Kathryn P 29   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; van Duijn, Cornelia M 77 ; MacGregor, Stuart 7   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Department of Ophthalmology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Clinical Genetics, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 
 University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux Population Health Research Center, Bordeaux, France 
 Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, Medical Research Council Human Genetics Unit, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK 
 Regenerative Medicine Institute and Department of Surgery, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Cornea Genetic Eye Institute, Los Angeles, CA, USA 
 Department of Ophthalmology, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany; Department of Ophthalmology, Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland 
 Department of Ophthalmology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 
 Statistical Genetics, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia 
 Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA; Institute for Computational Biology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA 
 Biomedical Sciences Research Institute, Ulster University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK; Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK 
10  Institute for Translational Genomics and Population Sciences and Department of Pediatrics, Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA, USA; Division of Genomic Outcomes, Departments of Pediatrics and Medicine, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA, USA 
11  Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, Medical Research Council Human Genetics Unit, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK; Centre for Ophthalmology and Visual Science, University of Western Australia, Lions Eye Institute, Perth, WA, Australia 
12  Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King’s College London, London, UK 
13  Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Institute of Public Health, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge, UK; NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK 
14  Faculty of Medicine, University of Split, Split, Croatia 
15  Departments of Medicine and Epidemiology and Cardiovascular Health Research Unit, University of Washington, Washington, USA; The New York Academy of Medicine, New York, NY, USA 
16  Centre for Vision Research, Department of Ophthalmology and Westmead Institute for Medical Research, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia 
17  Singapore Eye Research Institute, Singapore National Eye Centre, Singapore, Singapore 
18  Centre for Eye Research Australia, University of Melbourne, Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, East Melbourne, Australia 
19  University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW 2308, Australia 
20  Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne, VIC, Australia 
21  NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, UK 
22  Department of Ophthalmology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore 
23  Department of Genetics and Computational Biology, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia 
24  Department of General and Interventional Cardiology, University Heart Center Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany; German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK), Partner Site Hamburg/Kiel/Lübeck, Hamburg, Germany 
25  Department of Ophthalmology, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia 
26  Department of Ophthalmology, Medical Faculty Mannheim of the Ruprecht-Karls-University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany 
27  Institute for Medical Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany 
28  Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA 
29  Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia 
30  Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany 
31  Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, Medical Research Council Human Genetics Unit, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK; Centre for Global Health Research, Usher Institute for Population Health Sciences and Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK 
32  Department of Ophthalmology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, 27705 NC, USA 
33  Center for Human Genetics, Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation, Marshfield, WI, USA 
34  Department of Ophthalmology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27517 NC, USA 
35  Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA 
36  Department of Ophthalmology, College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 52242 IA, USA; Department of Anatomy/Cell Biology, College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 52242 IA, USA 
37  Wilmer Eye Institute, John Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21287 MD, USA 
38  Eye Doctors of Washington, Chevy Chase, MD, 20815 MD, USA 
39  Scripps Genome Center, University of California at San Diego, San Diego, CA, 92037 CA, USA 
40  Department of Ophthalmology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, 27705 NC, USA; Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, 27710 NC, USA 
41  Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02115 MA, USA 
42  Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, 33136 FL, USA 
43  Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48105 MI, USA 
44  Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, MA, USA 
45  Institute for Human Genomics, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, 33136 FL, USA 
46  Department of Ophthalmology, WVU Eye Institute, Morgantown, WV, 26506 WV, USA 
47  Department of Ophthalmology, UPMC Eye Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213 PA, USA 
48  Department of Ophthalmology, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, 94303 CA, USA 
49  Department of Ophthalmology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, 55905 MN, USA 
50  Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, 94305 CA, USA 
51  Department of Ophthalmology, Hamilton Eye Center, University of California, San Diego, CA, 92093 CA, USA 
52  Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Dept Statistics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK 
53  Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK 
54  Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Centre for Child Health Research, University of Western Australia, Subiaco, WA, Australia; Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge, UK 
55  Department of Psychosis Studies, NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London and The South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK 
56  University of Queensland Diamantina Institute, Brisbane, QLD 4102, QLD, Australia 
57  Dept Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK; Dept Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK 
58  Neuropsychiatric Genetics Research Group, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Eire, Ireland 
59  Molecular and Physiological Sciences, The Wellcome Trust, London, UK 
60  Department of Oncology, Old Road Campus, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Digestive Diseases Centre, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester, UK; Centre for Digestive Diseases, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK 
61  Clinical Neurosciences, St George’s University of London, London, UK 
62  King’s College London Dept Medical and Molecular Genetics, King’s Health Partners, Guy’s Hospital, London, UK 
63  Biomedical Research Centre, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, Dundee, UK 
64  King’s College London Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK 
65  Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK 
66  University of Cambridge Dept Clinical Neurosciences, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, UK 
67  Dept Molecular Neuroscience, Institute of Neurology, London, UK 
68  Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Ageing, Netherlands Genomics Initiative, The Hague, The Netherlands 
69  Centre for Eye Research Australia, University of Melbourne, Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, East Melbourne, Australia; School of Medicine, Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia 
70  Genome Institute of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore 
71  Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, MA, USA 
72  Department of Genetics and Computational Biology, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia; Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia 
73  Department of Ophthalmology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Ophthalmology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands 
74  Singapore Eye Research Institute, Singapore National Eye Centre, Singapore, Singapore; Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences Academic Clinical Program (Eye ACP), Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, Singapore; Department of Ophthalmology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore 
75  Department of Ophthalmology, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany 
76  Centre for Ophthalmology and Visual Science, University of Western Australia, Lions Eye Institute, Perth, WA, Australia 
77  Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 
Pages
1-11
Publication year
2018
Publication date
May 2018
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2038674406
Copyright
© 2018. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.