Tan JT, Dorajoo R, Seielstad M, Sim X, Rick OT, Seng CK, Yin WT, Saw SM, Kai CS, Aung T, Tai ES
FTO variants are associated with obesity in the Chinese and Malay populations in Singapore. [JOURNAL ARTICLE]
Diabetes 2008 Jul 3.
Objective: Association between genetic variants at the FTO locus and obesity has been consistently observed in populations of European ancestry and inconsistently in non-Europeans. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of FTO variants on obesity and type 2 diabetes in South-east Asian populations. Research Design and
Methods: We examined associations between nine previously reported FTO SNPs with obesity, type 2 diabetes and related traits in 4298 participants (2919 Chinese, 785 Malays and 594 Asian-Indians) from the 1998 Singapore National Health Survey (NHS98) and 2996 Malays from the Singapore Malay Eye Study (SiMES).
Results: All nine SNPs exhibited strong linkage disequilibrium (r(2)=0.6-0.99) and minor alleles were associated with obesity in the same direction as previous studies with effect sizes ranging from 0.42-0.68kg/m(2) (p<0.0001) in NHS98 Chinese, 0.65-0.91kg/m(2) (p<0.02) in NHS98 Malays, and 0.52-0.64kg/m(2) (p<0.0001) among SiMES Malays after adjustment for age, gender, smoking, alcohol consumption and exercise. The variants were also associated with type 2 diabetes and this was abolished after adjustment for BMI, except in the SiMES Malays (OR:1.17-1.22, p</=0.026).
Conclusions: FTO variants common among European populations are associated with obesity in ethnic Chinese and Malays in Singapore. Our data do not support the hypothesis that differences in allele frequency or genetic architecture underlie the lack of association observed in some populations of Asian ancestry. Examination of gene-environment interactions involving variants at this locus may provide further insights into the role of FTO in the pathogenesis of human obesity and diabetes.
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