Genotype and expression levels in lymphoblastoid cell lines were retrieved from public data for 45 Japanese individuals for 88 (86 cis and 2 trans) of the 112 representative SNPs. The average number of individuals with applicable data for genotype and the expression levels of lymphoblastoid cell lines in the 88 retrieved SNP-gene pairs was 43.8. The Pearson’s correlation coefficients between the eQTL SNPs and the expression levels of the corresponding genes in lymphoblastoid cell lines were calculated and have been shown in Table S3. A positive correlation coefficient indicates that the SNP has a similar effect on expression levels in whole blood and lymphoblastoid cell lines. Of the 86 cis-eQTL SNPs, 34 showed a significantly positive correlation, whereas 13 showed a significantly negative correlation with the expression levels of lymphoblastoid cell lines (FDR-corrected, P<0.05). None of the trans-eQTL SNPs identified in the current study significantly affected expression levels in lymphoblastoid cell lines.
