These findings suggest that the polymorphisms observed in the NOD2/CARD15, NOD1/CARD4, and ICAM-1 genes are not genetic susceptibility factors for Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis in Turkey.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between the polymorphisms of the b b 3 ± AR (Trp64Arg), UCP1 (A?G) and LPL (HindIII and PvuII) loci and the metabolic complications associated with obesity in a Turkish population. SUBJECTS: 271 unrelated individuals of Turkish origin including obese (body mass index, BMIb b30 kga am 2 ) and lean (BMI 25 kga am 2 ) subjects. MEASUREMENTS: Anthropometric (weight, height and blood pressure) and metabolic measurements (plasma levels of glucose, cholesterol and triglycerides), and determination of b b 3 ± AR, UCP1 and LPL genotypes by polymerase chain reaction followed by enzymatic digestion. RESULTS: The distributions of genotypes for each candidate gene (b b 3 ± AR, UCP1 and LPL) were similar between the obese and the lean subjects. The Arg 64 allele of the b b 3 ± AR gene was absent from massively obese men. GG carriers of the A?G variant of the UCP1 gene showed BMI-associated increases of cholesterol levels which were more marked than both AA (P 0.027) and AG (P 0.039) carriers. Obese P carriers of the LPL PvuII variant had signi®cantly higher levels of glucose than non-carriers (P 0.011), whereas obese P P carriers did not have signi®cantly different levels of triglycerides than non-carriers (P 0.087). Moreover, carriers of both alleles (G&P ) had higher levels of glucose than non-carriers (P 0.048), but did not have signi®cantly different levels of triglycerides than non-carriers (P 0.125). However, the BMI-associated increase of triglycerides of P &G carriers was signi®cantly more marked than that of P carriers (P 0.0085). CONCLUSION: Our data support the idea that alleles of speci®c genes (UCP1, LPL and b b 3 ± AR) might play a role in the development of certain metabolic complications of obesity and might have additive effects when combined with each other (as in the case of UCP1 and LPL).

The results suggest that these polymorphisms were not important risk factors in the susceptibility to IBD in Turkish patients.

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