Fleming Kathryn, Burley Kate, Ponce-Garcia Fernando, Akbari Parsa, Naveh Claire, Rice Chris, Zakrzewski Przemysław, Gibbs Willem, Groves Sarah, Cela Drinalda, Papayannopoulos Venizelos, Harbort Christopher J, Mumford Andrew, Amulic Borko
School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
British Heart Foundation Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, Wort's Causeway, Cambridge, UK.
iScience. 2025 Jul 7;28(8):113072. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2025.113072. eCollection 2025 Aug 15.
Neutrophils are essential immune cells loaded with cytosolic granules that contain potent antimicrobial and immunostimulatory molecules. Alterations of neutrophil granule contents are associated with immunodeficiency and hyperinflammation. Identification of regulators of granule development can aid in understanding of neutrophil-driven pathologies. Here, we perform a systematic prioritization of genetic variants associated with neutrophil cytometric side scatter (SSC), a proxy for granularity, identified in a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of blood parameters in healthy individuals. We show that triangulation of GWAS data with epigenetic and eQTL data identifies previously unknown factors regulating neutrophil granularity. We validate this approach using cellular and animal models to confirm that cyclin dependent kinase 6 (encoded by ) regulates neutrophil granule development. CDK6 specifically regulates the abundance of primary granules without affecting neutrophil maturation. Our approach demonstrates the utility of cell counter-derived SSC data paired with genomics as a tool to investigate neutrophil development and function.