Arg16Gly polymorphism of ADRB2 was significantly associated with obesity in female adolescents, and those with the Gly/Gly genotype were associated with a lower possibility of obesity and lower BMI. This polymorphism was also associated with a lower probability of hypertension in obese adolescents. The other two polymorphisms of ADRB (Gln27Glu and Trp64Arg) were not associated with adolescent obesity in Taiwan.

Purpose: This study was conducted to investigate risk factors of obesity and its associated health problems in adolescence in Taiwan. Boys who had more frequent effective exercise had lower frequency of eating outside (P=0.01) and more services of vegetables (P=0.002). There was no relation between hypertension and adolescent physical activity. Regardless of gender, obese group had higher waist circumference and blood pressure than normal-weight group (P<0.001). Methods Conclusion:There was a strong association between obese mother and adolescent obesity. More physical activity in adolescents associated with healthier dietary behaviors. Obese adolescents have higher waist circumference and blood pressure.

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Background/Aim: The roles of microRNAs (miRNAs) in tumorigenesis have attracted a lot of attention. The current study aimed at examining the association of the miR-196a-2 rs11614913 genotypes with susceptibility to childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in Taiwan. Materials and Methods: This case-control investigation recruited 266 patients with childhood ALL and 266 healthy controls, and the miR-196a-2 rs11614913 genotypes of each participant were examined via the polymerase chain reactionrestriction fragment length polymorphism methodology. Results: The frequency of miR-196a-2 C allele in controls was 0.440 compared with 0.423 in ALL patients. In addition, there was no significant association between CT or CC genotypes with susceptibility to childhood ALL (OR=0.89 and 0.89, p=0.5427 and 0.6302). Furthermore, the frequencies of miR-196a-2 polymorphisms were not associated with age, gender and clinical outcomes in ALL cases. Conclusion: The miR-19a-2 genotypes are not associated with susceptibility to childhood ALL in Taiwan.Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) occurs at all ages, and is the most common type of malignancy among children worldwide. The contribution of inherited factors to ALL are largely unknown. Epidemiological casecontrol studies have revealed several biomarkers that can be used for the prediction of childhood ALL (1-10). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous non-coding RNAs that are capable of down-regulating protein-coding genes via targeting their mRNAs, degrading mRNAs or suppressing translation (11). In 2005, Lu and his colleagues analyzed the expression profiles of 217 miRNAs in a panel of human cancers (12). The downregulation of these miRNAs was correlated with cancer developmental lineage and differentiation status (12). The differential expression of circulating miRNAs between cancer patients and healthy individuals is useful for cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic outcomes, however, studies on the genomic levels of miRNAs are very few.In recent years, mounting evidence has shown that rs11614913 (T>C), a common variant of miR-196a-2, may play a role in the development of several cancer types, including lung (13), breast (14), gastric (15), colorectal (16) and prostate cancer (17). As for childhood ALL, there are only two published studies, showing that variant C allele contributes to an increased risk of childhood ALL in Thailand (18), and China (19). Based on this information, we firstly aimed at genotyping the miR-196a-2 rs11614913 profiles among Taiwanese children and analyzing the possibility the genotypes of miR-196a-2 rs11614913 to serve as childhood ALL predictors.