Genome-wide association study of white blood cell counts in patients with ischemic stroke

Abstract

Background and Purpose-Immune cells play a key role in the first 24h poststroke (acute phase), being associated withstroke outcome. We aimed to find genetic risk factors associated with leukocyte counts during the acute phase of stroke.Methods-Ischemic stroke patients with leukocyte counts data during the first 24h were included. Genome-wide associationstudy and gene expression studies were performed.Results-Our genome-wide association study, which included 2064 (Discovery) and 407 (Replication) patients, revealeda new locus (14q24.3) associated with leukocyte counts. After Joint analysis (n=2471) 5 more polymorphisms reachedgenome-wide significance (P<5×10-8). The 14q24.3 locus was associated with acute stroke outcome (rs112809786,P=0.036) and with ACOT1 and PTGR2 gene expression. Previous polymorphisms associated with leukocyte counts ingeneral-population did not show any significance in our study.Conclusions-We have found the first locus associated with leukocyte counts in ischemic stroke, also associated withacute outcome. Genetic analysis of acute endophenotypes could be useful to find the genetic factors associated withstroke outcome. Our findings suggested a different modulation of immune cells in stroke compared with healthyconditions.