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Serotonin‐transporter promoter polymorphism modulates the ability to control food intake: Effect on total weight loss
Author(s) -
Bonnet Gemma,
GómezAbellán Purificación,
Vera Beatriz,
SánchezRomera Juan Francisco,
HernándezMartínez Antonio M.,
Sookoian Silvia,
Pirola Carlos Jose,
Garaulet Marta
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
molecular nutrition and food research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.495
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1613-4133
pISSN - 1613-4125
DOI - 10.1002/mnfr.201700494
Subject(s) - disinhibition , weight loss , obesity , serotonin transporter , overweight , overeating , body mass index , endocrinology , food craving , medicine , genotype , biology , genetics , psychology , psychiatry , craving , gene , addiction
Scope The biggest challenge for losing weight is the ability to control the amount of food eaten; the tendency to overeat is called disinhibition. Our aims were to determine whether (a) the SLC6A 4‐promoter variant (5‐HTTLPR) relates to disinhibition; (b) this association could affect total weight‐loss during a behavioral/dietary treatment for obesity. Methods and results A total of 2961 subjects attended voluntarily five weight‐loss clinics; a subsample ( n = 624) was recruited for SLC6A4 genotyping. Total weight‐loss, emotional‐eating‐score and disinhibition‐score were examined. We observed that: (a) the reduced ability to control food intake (disinhibition) is implicated in the impairment to lose weight; (b) SLC6A 4‐promoter variant is implicated in disinhibition. S carriers (low‐expressing) of the SLC6A4 ‐promoter variant had a lower inhibition capacity and showed more failure (1.6 times) to control the amount of food eaten than LL ( p < 0.05); other factors such as eating while bored, overeating after work at night, or craving for specific foods were associated to the SLC6A4 genotype ( p < 0.05); (c) The combination of disinhibition (high disinhibition) and genetics (S carrier) had a higher impact on total weight loss than each factor separately. Conclusions SLC6A 4‐promoter variant is associated with the ability to control food intake and interacts with emotional eating to modulate total weight loss.