Coanalysis of GWAS with eQTL reveals disease-tissue associations.
Expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL), or genetic variants associated with changes in gene expression, have the potential to assist in interpreting results of genome-wide association studies (GWAS). eQTLs also have varying degrees of tissue specificity. By correlating the statistical significance of eQTLs mapped in various tissue types to their odds ratios reported in a large GWAS by the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC), we discovered that there is a significant association between diseases studied genetically and their relevant tissues. This suggests that eQTL data sets can be used to determine tissues that play a role in the pathogenesis of a disease, thereby highlighting these tissue types for further post-GWAS functional studies.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22779046
Kang HP, Morgan AA, Chen R, Schadt EE, Butte AJ. Coanalysis of GWAS with eQTL reveals disease-tissue associations. AMIA Summits Transl Sci Proc. 2012;2012:35-41.