HDAC5 may contribute to osteoporosis etiology by controlling sclerostin expression in osteocytes and regulating osteoblast differentiation [50]. Since there was no probe for the HDAC5 gene in both eQTL studies, the present study cannot exclude the causal role of HDAC5 gene for BMD variation. However, our study clearly demonstrated that ASB16-AS1 was a putative novel functional gene in this known locus.
