title: Interaction between the RGS6 gene and psychosocial stress on obesity-related traits.
abstract: Obesity is a major risk factor for chronic diseases and arises from the interactions between environmental factors and multiple genes. Psychosocial stress may affect the risk for obesity, modifying food intake and choice. A recent study suggested regulator of G-protein signaling 6 (RGS6) as a novel candidate gene for obesity in terms of reward-related feeding under stress. In this study, we tried to verify the unidentified connection between RGS6 and human obesity with psychosocial stress in a Korean population. A total of 1,462 adult subjects, who participated in the Korean Association Resource cohort project, were included for this analysis. Obesity-related traits including waist circumference, body mass index, and visceral adipose tissue were recorded. A total of 4 intronic SNPs for the RGS6 gene were used for this study. We found that interactions between SNP rs2239219 and psychosocial stress are significantly associated with abdominal obesity (p = 0.007). As risk allele of this SNP increased, prevalence of abdominal obesity under high-stress conditions gradually increased (p = 0.013). However, we found no SNPs-by-stress interaction effect on other adiposity phenotypes. This study suggests that RGS6 is closely linked to stress-induced abdominal obesity in Korean adults.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health and Environment, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hyun-Jin
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jin-Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Min
authors.forename: Kyoung-Bok
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Min
mesh_terms: D050154:Adiposity; D015992:Body Mass Index; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D059647:Gene-Environment Interaction; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D015810:Linkage Disequilibrium; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D056128:Obesity, Abdominal / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D015995:Prevalence; D000072858:Psychosocial Support Systems; D020710:RGS Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D056910:Republic of Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology; D055105:Waist Circumference
chemical_list: D020710:RGS Proteins; C400194:RGS6 protein, human