FTO gene SNPs associated with extreme obesity in cases, controls and extremely discordant sister pairs.

ABSTRACT:

Background

FTO is a gene located in chromosome region 16q12.2. Recently two studies have found associations of several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in FTO with body mass index (BMI) and obesity, particularly rs1421085, rs17817449, and rs9939609.

Methods

We examined these three SNPs in 583 extremely obese women with current BMI greater than 35 kg/m2 and lifetime BMI greater than 40 kg/m2, and 544 controls who were currently normal weight (BMI<25 kg/m2) and had never been overweight during their lifetimes.

Results

We detected highly significant associations of obesity with alleles in all three SNPs (p < 10-9). The strongest association was with rs1421085 (p = 3.04 x 10-10, OR = 1.75, CI = 1.47-2.08). A subset of 99 cases had extremely discordant sisters with B

SUBMITTER: Price RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2254593 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature