Genetic and Epigenetic Determinants of Pediatric Obesity-Associated Asthma

Fifty-nine obese and sixty-one normal-weight asthmatic children of African American or Hispanic background, age 7-11 years, with well controlled asthma, were recruited from clinics affiliated with Children's Hospital at Montefiore, Bronx, New York, USA. We isolated CD4+ T cells (Th cells) from a fasting sample of peripheral blood and conducted genome-wide assays of gene expression by Directional Transcriptome Sequencing (RNA-seq), DNA methylation by HELP-tagging, and examined genetic polymorphisms and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), informative about ancestry, by array-based genotyping using Multi-Ethnic Genotyping Array.