Variants in CCL16 are associated with blood plasma and cerebrospinal fluid CCL16 protein levels

BACKGROUND: CCL16 is a chemokine predominantly expressed in the liver, but is also found in the blood and brain, and is known to play important roles in immune response and angiogenesis. Little is known about the gene’s regulation. METHODS: Here, we test for potential causal SNPs that affect CCL16 protein levels in both blood plasma and cerebrospinal fluid in a genome-wide association study across two datasets. We then use METAL to performed meta-analyses with a significance threshold of p < 5x10(−8). We removed SNPs where the direction of the effect was different between the two datasets. RESULTS: We identify 10 SNPs associated with increased CCL16 protein levels in both biological fluids. CONCLUSIONS: Our results will help understand CCL16’s regulation, allowing researchers to better understand the gene’s effects on human health. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-016-2788-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.