Clinical consequences of a polygenic predisposition to benign lower white blood cell counts: Consequences of benign WBC count genetics.

ABSTRACT: Polygenic variation unrelated to disease contributes to interindividual variation in baseline white blood cell (WBC) counts, but its clinical significance is undefined. We investigated the clinical consequences of a genetic predisposition toward lower WBC counts among 89,559 biobank participants from tertiary care centers using a polygenic score for WBC count (PGS_WBC) comprising single nucleotide polymorphisms not associated with disease. A predisposition to lower WBC counts was associated with a decreased risk of identifying pathology on a bone marrow biopsy performed for a low WBC count (odds-ratio=0.55 per standard deviation increase in PGS_WBC [95%CI, 0.30 - 0.94], p=0.04), an increased risk of leukopenia (a low WBC count) when treated with a chemotherapeutic (n=1,

SUBMITTER: Mosley JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10473820 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature