News Releases & Research Results Hypertension and obesity were identified as major risk factors for shortening the life spans of today using genomic information collected from 700,000 people - Elucidation of health factors, treatable in all people, using inherent genetic information -

The results of research conducted by graduate student Saori Sakaue, special research student Masahiro Kanai, and Professor Yukinori Okada of the Department of Statistical Genetics, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine.

• A cross-ethnic study methodology to examine the relationship between "polygenic risk score (PRS)," which is employed to predict future health risks and laboratory values, and life span (age of death) was developed using individual genomic information.
• Using this methodology, the genome data (*) collected from 700,000 people worldwide were analyzed, demonstrating that hypertension and obesity were most strongly involved in the shortening of life spans in the world today.
  * Genetic information stored at national biobanks in Japan (Biobank Japan: 180,000), United Kingdom (UK Biobank: 360,000), and Finland (FinnGen: 140,000).
• Hypertension and obesity had major effects on the life span of Japanese and Westerners.
• The results of research should facilitate the realization of personalized medicine using genomic information.

This research project was conducted with the support of Tailor-Made Medical Treatment with the BioBank Japan Project by AMED.

The results of research were published online in American scientific journal, Nature Medicine, on March 24.

Sakaue S, et al. Trans-biobank analysis with 676,000 individuals elucidates the association of polygenic risk scores of complex traits with human lifespan Nature Medicine
DOI：10.1038/s41591-020-0785-8