title: Genetic factors and clinical significance of acanthosis nigricans in obese Japanese children and adolescents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To clarify the clinical significance of acanthosis nigricans (AN) and the association of gene polymorphisms in the ss2- and ss3-adrenergic receptors (B2ADR and B3ADR) in Japanese obese children and adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventy obese subjects (56 boys, 14 girls) from 5 to 19 y of age were examined as to clinical features. Genetic analyses were performed in 83 obese subjects (61 boys, 22 girls), 2 to 17 y of age. Typing of gene polymorphisms in B2ADR and B3ADR was achieved by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of genomic DNA and restriction fragment-length polymorphism analysis (PCR-RFLP).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The group with AN (n = 30) had higher values for percent overweight, BMI, waist circumference, fasting insulin, HOMA-R, leptin and PAI-1 than the AN-negative group (n = 40), but there were no significant differences in age, sex or percent body fat between the two groups. The prevalences of B2ADR Gly16 and B3ADR Arg64 were significantly higher in AN-positive (n = 26) than in AN-negative (n = 57) subjects. In addition, the AN frequency was significantly higher in the group with both Gly16 and Arg64 than in the group with neither of these alleles (55.6% vs 12.5%, p < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We demonstrate that AN is a useful clinical marker for the severity of obesity associated with a high BMI, and that B2ADR Gly16 and B3ADR Arg64 are associated synergistically with AN in obese children and adolescents.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Daini Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Naoko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Miura
authors.forename: Ayako
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ikezaki
authors.forename: Saika
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iwama
authors.forename: Hisafumi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Matsuoka
authors.forename: Keiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Shigetaka
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sugihara
mesh_terms: D000052:Acanthosis Nigricans / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D020738:Leptin / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D018343:Receptors, Adrenergic, beta-2 / Q000235:genetics*; D022702:Receptors, Adrenergic, beta-3 / Q000235:genetics*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D020738:Leptin; D018343:Receptors, Adrenergic, beta-2; D022702:Receptors, Adrenergic, beta-3; D004247:DNA