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A sex-specific genome-wide association study of blood lipid levels in All of Us

Li, Y.; Lee, I.-H.; Kong, S. W.

2025-11-22 genetic and genomic medicine
10.1101/2025.11.21.25340771 medRxiv
Show abstract

Despite widely acknowledged sex differences in lipid metabolism and risks for cardiovascular disease, genetic associations contributing to such differences remain incompletely characterized. Here, we performed a sex-stratified genome-wide association study (GWAS) for four lipid profiles to identify loci exhibiting differential effects between males and females. Using whole-genome sequencing data from All of Us Research Program comprising 124,920 participants of diverse ancestry, we conducted GWAS analyses separately in males, females, and a pooled cohort. Our analyses validated previous findings on genes associated with lipid metabolism. In addition, we have found 5 genes showing significant sex-heterogeneous effects, including CELSR2 showing stronger association in males for HDL-C ({beta}female: -0.022, {beta}male: -0.045); GPAM in females for HDL-C ({beta}female: 0.042, {beta}male: 0.013); PLTP in females for HDL-C ({beta}female: 0.06, {beta}male: 0.02); ZPR1 in females for LDL-C ({beta}female: 0.050, {beta}male: 0.014); and CMIP in females for TG ({beta}female: 0.037, {beta}male: 0.019). These findings highlight sex-specific genetic contributions to lipid metabolism and underscore the importance of including sex in evaluating cardiovascular risk.

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