In a study into the genetic variance of human metabolism,researchers have identified thirty one regions of the genome thatwere associated with levels of circulating metabolites, i.e., smallmolecules that take part in various chemical reactions of humanbody. Many of the studied metabolites are biomarkers forcardiovascular disease or related disorders, thus the lociuncovered may provide valuable insight into the biologicalprocesses leading to common diseases. Laboratory tests used in the clinic typically monitor one or fewcirculating metabolites. The researchers at the Institute forMolecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) used a high throughput methodcalled nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) that can measure more thanhundred different metabolites in one assay. This provides a muchmore in-depth picture of circulating metabolic compounds. "Using this extensive analysis in thousands of people, we couldidentify a large number of genetic loci regulating the level ofcompounds circulating in the blood stream", says Dr. SamuliRipatti, the leader of the study. The team assayed 117 detailed metabolic markers, includinglipoprotein subclasses, amino acids and lipids, and conducted thelargest genome-wide association analysis of this type, in terms ofstudy sample size of 8330 individuals from six Finnishpopulation-based cohorts and 7.7 million genomic markers studied.They revealed, in total, 31 genetic regions associated with theblood levels of the metabolites. Eleven of the loci had not been previously shown to be associatedwith any metabolic measures. Among the findings were two new loci affecting serum cholesterol subclass measures, well-established risk markers forcardiovascular disease, and five new loci affecting levels of aminoacids recently discovered to be potential biomarkers for type 2 diabetes . The discovered variants have significant effects on themetabolite levels, the effect sizes being in general considerablylarger than the known common variants for complex disease have. Also, using Finnish twin pair samples, the researchers indicatedthat the metabolite levels show a high degree of heritability."This result suggests that the studied metabolites are describingbetter the underlying biology than the routinely used laboratorytests. Therefore, the study provides further support for the use ofdetailed data on multitude of metabolites in genetic studies toprovide novel biological insights and to help in elucidating theprocesses leading to common diseases", Dr. Ripatti says. Additional References Citations. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Library RFID Tag , RFID Ticket Manufacturer for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits RFID Clothing Tag.
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