The FTO gene harbors variation with the strongest effect on adiposity and obesity risk. Previous data support a role for FTO variation in influencing food intake. We conducted a combined analysis of 16,094 boys and girls aged 1–18 years from 14 studies to examine the following: 1) the association between the FTO rs9939609 variant (or a proxy) and total energy and macronutrient intake; and 2) the interaction between the FTO variant and dietary intake, and the effect on BMI. We found that the BMI-increasing allele (minor allele) of the FTO variant was associated with increased total energy intake (effect per allele = 14.3 kcal/day [95% CI 5.9, 22.7 kcal/day], P = 6.5 × 10−4), but not with protein, carbohydrate, or fat intake. We also found that protein intake modified the association between the FTO variant and BMI (interactive effect per allele = 0.08 SD [0.03, 0.12 SD], P for interaction = 7.2 × 10−4): the association between FTO genotype and BMI was much stronger in individuals with high protein intake (effect per allele = 0.10 SD [0.07, 0.13 SD], P = 8.2 × 10−10) than in those with low intake (effect per allele = 0.04 SD [0.01, 0.07 SD], P = 0.02). Our results suggest that the FTO variant that confers a predisposition to higher BMI is associated with higher total energy intake, and that lower dietary protein intake attenuates the association between FTO genotype and adiposity in children and adolescents.

BackgroundMaternal obesity has been linked to offspring asthma; however, other allergy-related diseases, as well as the association beyond early school age, are largely unstudied.ObjectiveTo examine the associations between maternal body mass index (BMI) in pregnancy and offspring asthma, rhinitis, eczema and sensitization up to 16 years of age.MethodsA total of 3294 children from the Swedish birth cohort BAMSE were included in the analyses. Maternal BMI was assessed around week 10 in pregnancy. Information on asthma, rhinitis, eczema, lifestyle factors and environmental exposures was obtained by parental questionnaires at 1, 2, 4, 8, 12 and 16 years. Sensitization was defined from IgE levels of inhalant allergens at 4, 8 and 16 years in a subsample of 2850 children. Generalized estimated equation models were used to analyse the associations between maternal BMI and the outcomes at 1–16 years.ResultsMaternal BMI was positively associated with overall risk of asthma up to age of 16 years (adj OR per 5 kg/m2 increase: 1.23; 95% CI 1.07–1.40 for prevalent asthma) excluding underweight mothers. In contrast, no significant associations were found for rhinitis, eczema or sensitization. The association with asthma was restricted to obese, rather than overweight mothers, but was attenuated when adjusting for overweight in the offspring. A causal inference test at 16 years further indicated that the child’s own overweight is a mediator in the suggested association between maternal BMI and offspring asthma at 16 years.Conclusions and Clinical RelevanceMaternal BMI is associated with an increased risk of asthma, but not rhinitis, eczema or sensitization; however, overweight in the offspring seems to have a mediating role. Prevention strategies of maternal pre-pregnancy and childhood obesity might be important to reduce the prevalence of childhood asthma.

Background: Fish intake in infancy has been associated with re-

Background Both asthma and obesity are complex disorders that are influenced by environmental and genetic factors. Shared genetic factors between asthma and obesity have been proposed to partly explain epidemiological findings of co-morbidity between these conditions. Objective To identify genetic variants that are associated with body mass index (BMI) in asthmatic children and adults, and to evaluate if there are differences between the genetics of BMI in asthmatics and healthy individuals. Methods In total, 19 studies contributed with genome-wide analysis study (GWAS) data from more than 23,000 individuals with predominantly European descent, of whom 8,165 are asthmatics. Results We report associations between several DENND1B variants (p=2.2×10−7 for rs4915551) on chromosome 1q31 and BMI from a meta-analysis of GWAS data using 2,691 asthmatic children (screening data). The top DENND1B SNPs were next evaluated in seven independent replication data sets comprising 2,014 asthmatics, and rs4915551 was nominally replicated (p<0.05) in two of the seven studies and of borderline significance in one (p=0.059). However, strong evidence of effect heterogeneity was observed and overall, the association between rs4915551 and BMI was not significant in the total replication data set, p=0.71. Using a random effects model, BMI was overall estimated to increase by 0.30 kg/m2 (p=0.01 for combined screening and replication data sets, N=4,705) per additional G allele of this DENND1B SNP. FTO was confirmed as an important gene for adult and childhood BMI regardless of asthma status. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance DENND1B was recently identified as an asthma susceptibility gene in a GWAS on children, and here we find evidence that DENND1B variants may also be associated with BMI in asthmatic children. However, the association was overall not replicated in the independent data sets and the heterogeneous effect of DENND1B points to complex associations with the studied diseases that deserve further study.