Cytokine-induced molecular responses in airway smooth muscle cells inform genome-wide association studies of asthma.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A challenge in the post-GWAS era is to assign function to disease-associated variants. However, available resources do not include all tissues or environmental exposures that are relevant to all diseases. For example, exaggerated bronchoconstriction of airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs) defines airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), a cardinal feature of asthma. However, the contribution of ASMC to genetic and genomic studies has largely been overlooked. Our study aimed to address the gap in data availability from a critical tissue in genomic studies of asthma.

Methods

We developed a cell model of AHR to discover variants associated with transcriptional, epigenetic, and cellular responses to two AHR promoting cytokines, IL-13 and IL-17A, and performed a GWAS of bronchi

SUBMITTER: Thompson EE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7370514 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature