A Genetic Variant Ameliorates β-Thalassemia Severity by Epigenetic-Mediated Elevation of Human Fetal Hemoglobin Expression
A delayed fetal-to-adult hemoglobin (Hb) switch ameliorates the severity of β-thalassemia and sickle cell disease. The molecular mechanism underlying the epigenetic dysregulation of the switch is unclear. To explore the potential cis-variants responsible for the Hb switching, we systematically analyzed an 80-kb region spanning the β-globin cluster using capture-based next -generation sequencing of 1142 Chinese β-thalassemia persons and identified 31 fetal hemoglobin (HbF)-associated haplotypes of the selected 28 tag regulatory single-nucleotide polymorphisms (rSNPs) in seven linkage disequilibrium (LD) blocks.
Source: The American Journal of Human Genetics - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Diyu Chen, Yangjin Zuo, Xinhua Zhang, Yuhua Ye, Xiuqin Bao, Haiyan Huang, Wanicha Tepakhan, Lijuan Wang, Junyi Ju, Guangfu Chen, Mincui Zheng, Dun Liu, Shuodan Huang, Lu Zong, Changgang Li, Yajun Chen, Chenguang Zheng, Lihong Shi, Quan Zhao, Qiang Wu, Sup Tags: Report Source Type: research