The Effects of Genetic Variation in FTO rs9939609 on Obesity and Dietary Preferences in Chinese Han Children and Adolescents

Abstract

The association of the rs9939609 single nucleotide polymorphism in FTO gene with obesity has been extensively investigated in studies of populations of European, African, and Asian ancestry. However, inconsistent results have been reported in Asian populations, and the relationship of FTO variation and dietary behaviors has only rarely been examined in Chinese children and adolescents. The aim of this study was to assess the association of rs9939609 with obesity and dietary preferences in childhood in a Chinese population. Epidemiological data including dietary preferences were collected in interviews using survey questionnaires, and rs9939609 genotype was determined by real-time PCR. The associations of rs9939609 genotypes with obesity and dietary preferences were analyzed by multivariate logistic regression using both additive and dominant models. The results showed that subjects with a TA or AA genotype had an increased risk of obesity compared with the TT participants; the odds ratios (ORs) were 1.47 (95% CI: 1.25–1.71, P = 1.73×10−6), and 3.32 (95% CI: 2.01–5.47, P = 2.68×10−6), respectively. After adjusting for age and gender, body mass index, waist circumference, hip circumference, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, triglycerides, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were higher, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol was lower in TA and AA participants than in those with the TT genotype. After additionally controlling for body mass index, the association remained significant only for systolic blood pressure (P = 0.005). Compared with TT participants, those with the AA genotype were more likely to prefer a meat-based diet (OR = 2.81, 95% CI: 1.52–5.21). The combined OR for obesity in participants with TA/AA genotypes and preference for a meat-based diet was 4.04 (95% CI: 2.8–5.81) compared with the TT participants who preferred a plant-based diet. These findings indicate the genetic variation of rs9939609 is associated with obesity and dietary preferences in Chinese children and adolescents.

Association of ADIPOQ, LEP, and FTO gene polymorphisms with large for gestational age infants

“…Similar results have been reported for the FTO polymorphism, which has been shown to be associated with anthropometric and biochemical variables, as well as with excess body weight (Dina et al, ; Frayling et al, ; Gerken et al, ; Liu et al, ; Reuter et al, ; Yang et al, ). For example, allele A of the rs9939609 polymorphism of the FTO gene was associated with greater accumulation of body fat, an increase in BMI, waist and hip circumference, blood pressure, triglycerides and low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol, and a further decrease in high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (Dina et al, ; Frayling et al, ; Gerken et al, ; Liu et al, ; Reuter et al, ; Solak et al, ; Yang et al, ). However, other studies found no association between the FTO polymorphism and weight status (Fawwad et al, ; Solak et al, ), which is in agreement with the results of our study.…”

Gene-Diet Interaction and Precision Nutrition in Obesity

“…In line with evidence in adults, studies have shown that FTO rs9939609 genotype was associated with childhood obesity [59,60,61,62], and also suggested an association of the FTO variant and dietary intake and preference [59,61,63]. We previously reported results of a combined analysis of 16,094 boys and girls from 14 studies [63], and found that BMI-increasing allele of the FTO variant was associated with increased total energy intake, but not with protein, carbohydrate, or fat intake.…”

Genetic variations in SEC16B, MC4R, MAP2K5 and KCTD15 were associated with childhood obesity and interacted with dietary behaviors in Chinese school-age population

“…Test-retest reliability was assessed by re-administering the questionnaire 4 weeks later, and validity was assessed by comparing 3-day food records. The reliability (Cronbach's α) and content validity of the questionnaire were 0.86 and 0.88, respectively (Yang et al, 2014).…”

“…The genetic risk score (GRS), which was calculated with the sum of risk alleles of the five SNPs of rs17782313, rs543874, rs2241423, rs11084753 and FTO rs9939609 which was the research results of our laboratory published earlier (Yang et al, 2014), was used to evaluate the cumulative effect of the risk SNPs. The GRS was positively correlated with the risks of obesity after being adjusted for age and sex (P trend = 8.50 × 10 − 15) (Fig.…”