Premium
Molecular analysis of the CART gene in overweight and obese Italian children using family‐based association methods
Author(s) -
Rigoli L,
Munafò C,
Di Bella C,
Salpietro A,
Procopio V,
Salpietro C
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
acta pædiatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2010.01709.x
Subject(s) - overweight , medicine , obesity , single nucleotide polymorphism , allele , snp , cart , polymorphism (computer science) , allele frequency , endocrinology , genetics , genotype , gene , biology , mechanical engineering , engineering
Aim: In our study, we evaluated if CART gene A1475G and ΔA1457 polymorphisms could be associated with obesity. Patients and methods: We recruited 133 Italian trios from among 103 (50 males and 53 females) overweight children (mean age 10.5 years, range 6–14 years; mean BMI 26.1 ± 3.2 kg/m 2 ), and 30 (16 males and 14 females) obese children (mean age 9.0 years, range 6–11 years; mean BMI 32.3 ± 2.0 kg/m 2 ). We also selected 187 non‐obese unrelated controls. Results: The allele frequencies of the A1475G single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) were significantly higher in overweight children (0.07) than in control children (0.02) (p = 0.03) and control adults (0.02) (p = 0.02). Moreover, the allele frequencies were significantly different between obese children (0.08) and control children (0.02) (p = 0.03), and between obese children (0.08) and control adults (0.02) (p = 0.02). The ΔA1457 SNP showed no significant association with overweight/obesity. TDT statistic revealed a preferential transmission of the 1475G allele from heterozygous parents to overweight children (p < 0.01) and to obese children (p < 0.05). No statistically significant excess transmission of the ΔA1457 allele was found. Conclusion: Our results supported the hypothesis that inherited variations of the CART gene could influence the development of obesity also in Italian children.