Page 84 - The prevalence of the Val66Met polymorphism in musicians: Possible evidence for compensatory neuroplasticity from a pilot study
P. 84

Validation of genes in childhood obesity   |  7



              rs10767664 A-allele (25) and NEGR1 rs2815752   detect the influence of the genetic component in this
              A-allele (26,27). Regarding BDNF,Zegers et al.  complex phenotype in childhood, where environmen-
              screened the coding region of the gene and did not  tal exposure and its interaction with genotypes have
              find mutations associated with overweight or obesity  occurred for a relatively short period of their lifetime.
              in children and adolescents (28). On the other hand,  The continuity of the follow-up of the two cohorts
              Gardner et al. revealed BDNF promoter methylation  may, in the future, bring more important findings in re-
              levels associated with satiety responsiveness in female  lation to these questions.
              children (29).                                                                                       ORIGINALRESEARCH
                In our study, we found SEC16B rs10913469 T/T
              genotype associated with increased energy, carbo-  Conflict of Interest
              hydrates and lipids intake. Other studies also in pae- Statement
              diatric samples observed the C-allele associated with
                                                             No conflict of interest was declared.
              BMI and risk of obesity. The minor allele for this SNP
              was found in our sample with a lower frequency than
              in European-derived (CEU) or African (YRI) population  Acknowledgements
              samples (Table 2). Therefore, these discrepancies
                                                             M. R. Z. carried out the experiments, the statistical
              may be due to population heterogeneity and/or differ-
                                                             analyses and wrote the manuscript. C. S. performed
              ent linkage disequilibrium patterns. It is important to
                                                             nutritional evaluation and database construction. P.
              notice that the individuals studied herein are all from
                                                             D. B. C. and M. R. V. were responsible for the cohort
              Rio Grande do Sul, the Brazilian southernmost state,
                                                             selection, nutritional evaluation and sample collec-
              where the Amerindian and African influence is
                                                             tion. S. A. participated in the statistical analyses and
              reduced in comparison with all other geographic
                                                             manuscript writing. V. S.M. conceived the experi-
              regions from Brazil. One striking difference between
                                                             ments, analyzed and interpreted data and wrote the
              Brazil and other countries that congregate European
                                                             manuscript. All authors approved the final version.
              and African descents, like the USA, is the high degree
                                                             This work has been financially supported by grants
              of admixture that can be found between these eth-
                                                             from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Ci-
              nicities, making very difficult to determine ancestrality
                                                             entífico e Tecnológico (CNPq, Brazil) and the
              from phenotypic characteristics (30). Therefore, the
                                                             Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio
              finding that most gene variants presented intermedi-
                                                             Grande do Sul (FAPERGS, Brazil).
              ate frequencies between Euro and Afro descendants
              was expected.
                A limitation to our study is that our moderated sam-  References
              ple size may not have been large enough to detect an
              influence of some of the studied polymorphisms on  1. Whitaker RC, Wright JA, Pepe MS, Seidel KD, Dietz
              obesity-related traits. Furthermore, although we have  WH. Predicting obesity in young adulthood from childhood
              not detected any difference in genotype frequencies  and parental obesity. N Engl J Med 1997; 337: 869–873.
                                                             2. Maes HH, Neale MC, Eaves LJ. Genetic and environ-
              or  anthropometric  and  dietary  measurements
                                                             mental factors in relative body weight and human
              between ethnicities, our results may be interpreted
                                                             adiposity. Behav Genet 1997; 27: 325–351.
              with caution because of the bi-ethnic nature of our
                                                             3. Locke AE, Kahali B, Berndt SI, et al. Genetic studies of
              population. It is also noteworthy that this is a longitu-  body mass index yield new insights for obesity biology.
              dinal study, and our two cohorts are very well charac-  Nature 2015; 518: 197–206.
              terized in terms of anthropometry and food intake,  4. Loos RJ, Lindgren CM, Li S, et al. Common variants
              which represents an important differential factor from  near MC4R are associated with fat mass, weight and risk
              many other studies. Our results suggest that the  of obesity. Nat Genet 2008; 40: 768–775.
              follow-up of our two cohorts may reveal other associ-  5. Thorleifsson G, Walters GB, Gudbjartsson DF, et al.
              ations as the age of the children increase and thus  Genome-wide association yields new sequence variants
              provide interesting information.               at seven loci that associate with measures of obesity. Nat
                                                             Genet 2009; 41: 18–24.
                In conclusion, we found that among the more than
                                                             6. Willer CJ, Speliotes EK, Loos RJ, et al. Six new loci as-
              97 loci that have been reported to associate with sus-
                                                             sociated with body mass index highlight a neuronal
              ceptibility to obesity, those located in or near
                                                             influence on body weight regulation. Nat Genet 2009; 41:
              TMEM18, BDNF, NEGR1 and SEC16B contribute      25–34.
              to obesity susceptibility in childhood, as demon-  7. Speliotes EK, Willer CJ, Berndt SI, et al. Association
              strated by their associations in our two Brazilian pae-  analyses of 249,796 individuals reveal 18 new loci associ-
              diatric cohorts. We reasoned that it is very relevant to  ated with body mass index. Nat Genet 2010; 42: 937–948.
                                                                      © 2016 World Obesity. Pediatric Obesity ••, ••–••
   79   80   81   82   83   84   85