Integration of transcriptome-wide association study and messenger RNA expression profile to identify genes associated with osteoarthritis

AIMS: Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most prevalent joint disease. However, the specific and definitive genetic mechanisms of OA are still unclear. METHODS: Tissue-related transcriptome-wide association studies (TWAS) of hip OA and knee OA were performed utilizing the genome-wide association study (GWAS) data of hip OA and knee OA (including 2,396 hospital-diagnosed hip OA patients versus 9,593 controls, and 4,462 hospital-diagnosed knee OA patients versus 17,885 controls) and gene expression reference to skeletal muscle and blood. The OA-associated genes identified by TWAS were further compared with the differentially expressed genes detected by the messenger RNA (mRNA) expression profiles of hip OA and knee OA. Functional enrichment and annotation analysis of identified genes was performed by the DAVID and FUMAGWAS tools. RESULTS: We detected 33 common genes, eight common gene ontology (GO) terms, and one common pathway for hip OA, such as calcium and integrin-binding protein 1 (CIB1) (P(TWAS) = 0.025, FC(mRNA) = -1.575 for skeletal muscle), adrenomedullin (ADM) (P(TWAS) = 0.022, FC(mRNA) = -4.644 for blood), Golgi apparatus (P(TWAS) <0.001, P(mRNA) = 0.012 for blood), and phosphatidylinositol 3' -kinase-protein kinase B (PI3K-Akt) signalling pathway (P(TWAS) = 0.033, P(mRNA) = 0.005 for blood). For knee OA, we detected 24 common genes, eight common GO terms, and two common pathways, such as histocompatibility complex, class II, DR beta 1 (HLA-DRB1) (P(TWAS) = 0.040, FC(mRNA) = 4.062 for skeletal muscle), Follistatin-like 1 (FSTL1) (P(TWAS) = 0.048, FC(mRNA) = 3.000 for blood), cytoplasm (P(TWAS) < 0.001, P(mRNA) = 0.005 for blood), and complement and coagulation cascades (P(TWAS) = 0.017, P(mRNA) = 0.001 for skeletal muscle). CONCLUSION: We identified a group of OA-associated genes and pathways, providing novel clues for understanding the genetic mechanism of OA. Cite this article: Bone Joint Res. 2020;9(3):130–138.