Genome-Wide Association Study Begins to Tease Out Pathways for Childhood Asthma

Genome-wide association studies are used to identify genes that influence complex diseases. In this study, researchers genotyped nearly 600,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 10,365 individuals with asthma and 16,110 unaffected individuals (matched for European descent) to look for genes associated with asthma in the overall population and in subgroups with childhood-onset asthma (presenting before age 16 years), later-onset asthma, occupational asthma, and severe asthma.

Researchers identified six polymorphisms associated with asthma that are involved in initiation of inflammation in response to epithelial damage, specifically endogenous endothelial and epithelial cell signaling systems, control of cell proliferation and differen…