International Genome-Wide Association Study Consortium Identifies Novel Loci Associated With Blood Pressure in Children and Adolescents.

Background: Our aim was to identify genetic variants associated with blood pressure (BP) in childhood and adolescence.

Methods And Results: Genome-wide association study data from participating European ancestry cohorts of the Early Genetics and Lifecourse Epidemiology (EAGLE) Consortium was meta-analyzed across 3 epochs; prepuberty (4-7 years), puberty (8-12 years), and postpuberty (13-20 years). Two novel loci were identified as having genome-wide associations with systolic BP across specific age epochs: rs1563894 (ITGA11, located in active H3K27Ac mark and transcription factor chromatin immunoprecipitation and 5'-C-phosphate-G-3' methylation site) during prepuberty (P=2.