RIS ID
81174
Abstract
Background We recently reported significantly greater weight gain in non-diabetic healthy subjects with a 1st degree family history (FH+) of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) than in a matched control group without such history (FH−) during voluntary overfeeding, implying co-inheritance of susceptibilities to T2DM and obesity. We have estimated the extent and mode of inheritance of susceptibility to increased adiposity in FH+.
Methods Normoglycaemic participants were categorised either FH+ (≥1 1st degree relative with T2DM, 50F/30M, age 45±14 (SD) yr) or FH− (71F/51M, age 43±14 yr). Log-transformed anthropometric measurements (height, hip and waist circumferences) and lean, bone and fat mass (Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry) data were analysed by rotated Factor Analysis. The age- and gender-adjusted distributions of indices of adiposity in FH+ were assessed by fits to a bimodal model and by relative risk ratios (RR, FH+/FH−) and interpreted in a purely genetic model of FH effects.
Results The two orthogonal factors extracted, interpretable as Frame and Adiposity accounted for 80% of the variance in the input data. FH+ was associated with significantly higher Adiposity scores (p
Conclusions The segregation of Adiposity in T2DM-affected families is consistent with dominant expression of rare risk variants with major effects, which are expressed in over half of FH+ and which can account for most T2DM-associated obesity in our population. The calculated risk allele frequency in FH− suggests that rare genetic variants could also account for a substantial fraction of the prevalent obesity in this society.
Publication Details
Jenkins, A. B., Batterham, M., Samocha-Bonet, D., Tonks, K., Greenfield, J. R. & Campbell, L. V. (2013). Segregation of a latent high adiposity phenotype in families with a history of type 2 diabetes mellitus implicates rare obesity-susceptibility genetic variants with large effects in diabetes-related obesity. PLoS One, 8 (8), e70435-1-e70435-9.