This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Researcher underscores association between gene variant, adiposity in children, adolescents

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

SAN FRANCISCO — Research presented here emphasized the association between an FTO gene variant and its role in adiposity among children and adolescents based on data from a large, meta-analysis.

“As you may know FTO was the first obesity gene identified by genome-wide association studies in 2007,” Qibin Qi, MD, of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, said during a presentation at the American Diabetes Association’s 74th Scientific Sessions. “The minor allele is associated with high BMI and associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and obesity.”

The literature has suggested that FTO may play a role in regulating food intake, according to Qi.

Therefore, Qi and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis based on data from 16,264 boys and girls aged 3 to 18 years from 15 studies.

Their data were comprised of food frequency questionnaires, dietary records, or 24-hour recalls, and macronutrient intake expressed as the percentage of total energy intake.

The minor allele of the FTO-rs9939609 variant was associated with greater BMI (effect per allele=0.07; 95% CI, 0.05-0.09), total energy intake (per allele=14.3; 5.9 kcal/day-22.7 kcal/day), but not associated with dietary protein, carbohydrate or fat intake (P>.12), according to data.

The interaction between the FTO variant and protein intake also had significant effects on BMI (P=.0007), according to data. This association was much more significant among patients with high protein intake (P=8.8×10^-10) vs. patients with low intake (P=.02), according to data.

“These results suggest that an FTO association between single nucleotide polymorphism and BMI might be caused by high protein intake,” Qi said. – by Samantha Costa

Disclosure: Qi reports no relevant financial disclosures.

For more information: Qi Q. Abstract 382-OR. Presented at: American Diabetes Association’s 74th Scientific Sessions; June 13-17, 2014; San Francisco.