Next, we used available GWAS results for additional metabolic phenotypes (BMI from GIANT31, blood pressure from Global BPGen32, and lipids from ENGAGE33), to assess the impact of the newly discovered glycemic loci on these traits. None of the novel loci had significant (P<0.01) associations with BMI or blood pressure (Table 3). Interestingly, the FADS1 glucose-raising allele was associated with increased total cholesterol (P=2.5×10−6), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P=8.5×10−6) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P=2.9×10−5), but lower triglyceride levels (P=1.9×10−6) (Table 3); a consistent association of this locus with lipid levels has been previously reported34. The FG-associated variant in MADD was not associated with lipid levels and is not in LD (r2<0.1) with a previously reported high-density lipoprotein cholesterol SNP (rs7395662)33, suggesting two independent signals within the same locus, one affecting lipid levels and the other FG levels (Table 3).
