Mechanical versus humoral determinants of brain death-induced lung injury - Fig 7

<p><b>Relative lung mRNA expression of intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM) and vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM)-1</b> at baseline, one (BD + 1 hour) and five (BD + 5 hours) hours after Cushing reflex in the placebo-pretreated brain death (BD group; n = 11; red bars) and in the methylprednisolone-pretreated brain death (BD + Corticosteroids group; n = 8; blue bars) groups. Values are expressed as mean ± SEM. * p<0.05 BD versus BD + Corticosteroids; || p<0.05 Base versus BD + 1 hour, ** p<0.05 Base versus BD + 5 hours in the BD + Corticosteroids group.</p

Trans-ancestry meta-analyses identify rare and common variants associated with blood pressure and hypertension.

High blood pressure is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and premature death. However, there is limited knowledge on specific causal genes and pathways. To better understand the genetics of blood pressure, we genotyped 242,296 rare, low-frequency and common genetic variants in up to 192,763 individuals and used ∼155,063 samples for independent replication. We identified 30 new blood pressure- or hypertension-associated genetic regions in the general population, including 3 rare missense variants in RBM47, COL21A1 and RRAS with larger effects (>1.5 mm Hg/allele) than common variants. Multiple rare nonsense and missense variant associations were found in A2ML1, and a low-frequency nonsense variant in ENPEP was identified. Our data extend the spectrum of allelic variation underlying blood pressure traits and hypertension, provide new insights into the pathophysiology of hypertension and indicate new targets for clinical intervention.Wellcome Trust (068545/Z/02)This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng.365

Genetic studies of body mass index yield new insights for obesity biology

Note: A full list of authors and affiliations appears at the end of the article. Obesity is heritable and predisposes to many diseases. To understand the genetic basis of obesity better, here we conduct a genome-wide association study and Metabochip meta-analysis of body mass index (BMI), a measure commonly used to define obesity and assess adiposity, in up to 339,224 individuals. This analysis identifies 97 BMI-associated loci (P 20% of BMI variation. Pathway analyses provide strong support for a role of the central nervous system in obesity susceptibility and implicate new genes and pathways, including those related to synaptic function, glutamate signalling, insulin secretion/action, energy metabolism, lipid biology and adipogenesis.</p