Associations of six single nucleotide polymorphisms in obesity-related genes with BMI and risk of obesity in Chinese children.
OBJECTIVE
Childhood obesity strongly predisposes to some adult diseases. Recently, genome-wide association (GWA) studies in Caucasians identified multiple single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with BMI and obesity. The associations of those SNPs with BMI and obesity among other ethnicities are not fully described, especially in children. Among those previously identified SNPs, we selected six (rs7138803, rs1805081, rs6499640, rs17782313, rs6265, and rs10938397, in or near obesity-related genes FAIM2, NPC1, FTO, MC4R, BDNF, and GNPDA2, respectively) because of the relatively high minor allele frequencies in Chinese individuals and tested the associations of the SNPs with BMI and obesity in Chinese children.


METHODS
We investigated the associations of these SNPs with BMI and obesity in school-aged children. A total of 3,503 children participated in the study, including 1,229 obese, 655 overweight, and 1,619 normal-weight children (diagnosed by the Chinese age- and sex-specific BMI cutoffs).


RESULTS
After age and sex adjustment and correction for multiple testing, the SNPs rs17782313, rs6265, and rs10938397 were associated with BMI (P = 1.0 × 10⁻⁵, 0.038, and 0.00093, respectively) and also obesity (P = 5.0 × 10⁻⁶, 0.043, and 0.00085, respectively) in the Chinese children. The SNPs rs17782313 and rs10938397 were also significantly associated with waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio, and fat mass percentage.


CONCLUSIONS
Results of this study support obesity-related genes in adults as important genes for BMI variation in children and suggest that some SNPs identified by GWA studies in Caucasians also confer risk for obesity in Chinese children.
Wu
Lijun
L
Department of Epidemiology, Capital Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing, China.
Xi
Bo
B
Zhang
Meixian
M
Shen
Yue
Y
Zhao
Xiaoyuan
X
Cheng
Hong
H
Hou
Dongqing
D
Sun
Dandan
D
Ott
Jurg
J
Wang
Xingyu
X
Mi
Jie
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000483:Alleles; D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / Q000235:genetics; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study / Q000379:methods; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D008297:Male; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics; D000077296:Niemann-Pick C1 Protein; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D044465:White People / Q000235:genetics
D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; C106881:NPC1 protein, human; D000077296:Niemann-Pick C1 Protein