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In epigenomic studies, including cell-type adjustments in regression models can introduce multicollinearity, resulting in apparent reversal of direction of association
Citation
Barton, SJ and Melton, PE and Titcombe, P and Murray, R and Rauschert, S and Lillycrop, KA and Huang, R-C and Holbrook, JD and Godfrey, KM, In epigenomic studies, including cell-type adjustments in regression models can introduce multicollinearity, resulting in apparent reversal of direction of association, Frontiers in Genetics, 10 Article 816. ISSN 1664-8021 (2019) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2019 Barton, Melton, Titcombe, Murray, Rauschert, Lillycrop, Huang, Holbrook and Godfrey. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms
DOI: doi:10.3389/fgene.2019.00816
Abstract
Background: Association studies of epigenome-wide DNA methylation and disease can inform biological mechanisms. DNA methylation is often measured in peripheral blood, with heterogeneous cell types with different methylation profiles. Influences such as adiposity-associated inflammation can change cell-type proportions, altering measured blood methylation levels. To determine whether associations between loci-specific methylation and outcomes result from cellular heterogeneity, many studies adjust for estimated blood cell proportions, but high correlations between methylation and cell-type proportions could violate the statistical assumption of no multicollinearity. We examined these assumptions in a population-based study.
Methods: CDKN2A promoter CpG methylation was measured in peripheral blood from 812 adolescents aged 17 years (Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort Study). Loge adolescent BMI was used as the outcome in a regression analysis with DNA methylation as predictor, adjusting for age/sex. Further regression analyses additionally adjusted for estimated cell-type proportions using the reference-based Houseman method, and simulations modeled the effects of varying levels of correlation between cell proportions and methylation. Correlations between estimated cell proportions and CpG methylation from Illumina 450K were measured.
Results: Lower DNA methylation was associated with higher BMI when cell-type adjustment was not included; for CpG4, β = −0.004 logeBMI/%methylation (95% CI −0.0065, −0.001; p = 0.003). The direction of association reversed when adjustment for six cell types was made; for CpG4, β = 0.004 logeBMI/%methylation (−0.0002, 0.0089; p = 0.06). Correlations between CpG methylation and cell-type proportions were high, and variance inflation factors (VIFs) were extremely high (25 to 113.7). Granulocyte count was correlated with BMI, and removing granulocytes from the regression model reduced all VIFs to <3.1, with persistence of a positive association between methylation and BMI [CpG4 β = 0.004 logeBMI/%methylation (−0.0002, 0.0088; p = 0.06)]. Simulations supported major effects of multicollinearity on regression results.
Conclusions: Where cell types are highly correlated with other covariates in regression models, the statistical assumption of no multicollinearity may be violated. This can result in reversal of direction of association, particularly when examining associations with phenotypes related to inflammation, as CpG methylation may associate with changes in cell-type proportions. Removing predictors with high correlations from regression models may remove the multicollinearity. However, this might hinder biological interpretability.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | Illumina 450K, epigenomics, houseman cell-type adjustments, multicollinearity, reversal of direction of association, statistical assumptions |
Research Division: | Biological Sciences |
Research Group: | Genetics |
Research Field: | Epigenetics (incl. genome methylation and epigenomics) |
Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in the mathematical sciences |
UTAS Author: | Melton, PE (Dr Phillip Melton) |
ID Code: | 141388 |
Year Published: | 2019 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 9 |
Deposited By: | Menzies Institute for Medical Research |
Deposited On: | 2020-10-16 |
Last Modified: | 2021-06-03 |
Downloads: | 5 View Download Statistics |
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