Genetic and Environmental Influences on Body‐Fat Measures among African‐American Twins

Nelson, Tracy L.; Brandon, Dwayne T.; Wiggins, Sebrina A.; Whitfield, Keith E.

doi:10.1038/oby.2002.100

Cited by 27 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The WHR has been determined by both environmental factors, such as physical activities, cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption, and genetic factors in different degrees among ethnic populations [8,9]. In African-Americans, 59% of the variance of the WHR in men and 56% of the variance of the WHR in women were attributed to genetic factors [10].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels increase with age, body mass index, blood pressure and fasting blood glucose in a rural Uygur population in China

Yan

Yang

et al. 2005

Journal of Hypertension

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The serum HDLC levels in Uygur normotensive participants increased with age, body mass index, blood pressure and fasting glucose levels. This was inconsistent with the previous studies and the reason remained unclear. Further study is needed to elucidate both the environmental and genetic determinants of the novel distribution of the HDLC levels and their association with coronary heart disease in the Uygur population.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels increase with age, body mass index, blood pressure and fasting blood glucose in a rural Uygur population in China

Yan

Yang

et al. 2005

Journal of Hypertension

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“…The heritability of BMI ranged from 45 to 85% in a comparative study of twin cohorts in eight countries, 11 and heritability estimates for WC have varied between 45 and 77% in previous twin studies. [12][13][14][15] Genetic effects have also been demonstrated for weight gain. 16,17 The heritability of exercise participation ranged from 27 to 70% in a large pooled twin sample from seven countries.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical activity reduces the influence of genetic effects on BMI and waist circumference: a study in young adult twins

et al. 2008

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Objective: Both obesity and exercise behavior are influenced by genetic and environmental factors. However, whether obesity and physical inactivity share the same genetic vs environmental etiology has rarely been studied. We therefore analyzed these complex relationships, and also examined whether physical activity modifies the degree of genetic influence on body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC). Methods: The FinnTwin16 Study is a population-based, longitudinal study of five consecutive birth cohorts (1975)(1976)(1977)(1978)(1979) of Finnish twins. Data on height, weight, WC and physical activity of 4343 subjects at the average age of 25 (range, 22-27 years) years were obtained by a questionnaire and self-measurement of WC. Quantitative genetic analyses based on linear structural equations were carried out by the Mx statistical package. The modifying effect of physical activity on genetic and environmental influences was analyzed using gene-environment interaction models. Results: The overall heritability estimates were 79% in males and 78% in females for BMI, 56 and 71% for WC and 55 and 54% for physical activity, respectively. There was an inverse relationship between physical activity and WC in males (r ¼ À0.12) and females (r ¼ À0.18), and between physical activity and BMI in females (r ¼ À0.12). Physical activity significantly modified the heritability of BMI and WC, with a high level of physical activity decreasing the additive genetic component in BMI and WC. Conclusions: Physically active subjects were leaner than sedentary ones, and physical activity reduced the influence of genetic factors to develop high BMI and WC. This suggests that the individuals at greatest genetic risk for obesity would benefit the most from physical activity.

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“…Heritability estimates for both systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) are between 40 and 60%, 5 and the heritability for body mass index (BMI) is also substantial. [6][7][8] These estimates raise the possibility that common genetic susceptibility may account for the association. Several previous twin and family studies have shown that the association between blood pressure (BP) and BMI is partly attributed to a common set of genetic factors, 5,9-11 although another study investigating the differences in monozygotic (MZ) twins showed that even in the absence of genetic influences, obesity may still be significantly associated with BP.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic and environmental influences on blood pressure and body mass index in Han Chinese: a twin study

Snieder

et al. 2010

Hypertens Res

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The familial aggregation of blood pressure (BP) may be partly due to the familial aggregation of obesity, caused by genetic and/or environmental factors that influence both. Gene-obesity interactions are expected to result in different heritability estimates for BP at different obesity levels. However, the latter hypothesis has never been tested. The present study included 1243 monozygotic and 833 dizygotic Han Chinese twins (mean±s.d. age: 37.81±9.82; range: 19.1-81.4) from the Chinese National Twin Registry. Body mass index (BMI) was used as the index of general obesity. The outcome measures were systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP). Quantitative genetic modeling was performed using Mx software. The SBP and DBP heritabilities were 46 and 30%, respectively. The positive correlations of BMI with SBP (r¼0.26) and with DBP (r¼0.27) were largely due to genetic factors (approximately 85%). Genetic factors, which also influence BMI, account for 6 and 7% of the total variance for SBP and DBP, respectively. The gene-obesity interaction analysis showed that both common and unique environmental influences on SBP increased with increasing levels of BMI, resulting in a lower heritability at higher BMI levels, whereas for DBP the heritability remained unchanged at higher BMI levels. Our results suggest that higher BMIs may reduce SBP heritability through a larger impact of environmental effects. These conclusions may be valuable for gene-finding studies. Keywords: blood pressure; heritability; interaction; obesity; twin INTRODUCTION Hypertension affects a large proportion of the adult population, 1 and is caused by complex interactions of environmental and genetic factors that vary across populations. Obesity is a well-established risk factor for hypertension. [2][3][4] Twin studies have shown that underlying continuous traits for both hypertension and obesity are significantly heritable. Heritability estimates for both systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) are between 40 and 60%, 5 and the heritability for body mass index (BMI) is also substantial. 6-8 These estimates raise the possibility that common genetic susceptibility may account for the association. Several previous twin and family studies have shown that the association between blood pressure (BP) and BMI is partly attributed to a common set of genetic factors, 5,9-11 although another study investigating the differences in monozygotic (MZ) twins showed that even in the absence of genetic influences, obesity may still be significantly associated with BP. 12 Moreover, most of these studies

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Genetic and Environmental Influences on Body‐Fat Measures among African‐American Twins

Cited by 27 publications

References 23 publications

High-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels increase with age, body mass index, blood pressure and fasting blood glucose in a rural Uygur population in China

High-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels increase with age, body mass index, blood pressure and fasting blood glucose in a rural Uygur population in China

Physical activity reduces the influence of genetic effects on BMI and waist circumference: a study in young adult twins

Genetic and environmental influences on blood pressure and body mass index in Han Chinese: a twin study

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