To further confirm our GWAS findings, we performed an in silico replication study of the nine interesting SNPs upstream of the IL15 gene using a large FHS sample containing 7,623 Caucasians from 1,731 families. Again, a clear pattern of male-specific association of these SNPs with smoking status was observed; although none of the SNPs achieved p values less than 0.44 in the female subgroup, seven of the SNPs achieved p values less than 0.05 and two achieved p values less than 0.10 in the male subgroup (Table 4). The results provide additional support to our GWAS findings and replication findings achieved in the AA cohort.
