Association and interaction effect of UCP2 gene polymorphisms and dietary factors with congenital heart diseases in Chinese Han population

Senmao Zhang,Jiabi Qin,Peng Huang,Tingting Wang,Tubao Yang,Xiaoying Liu,Lizhang Chen

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-88057-2

Abstract

Congenital heart diseases (CHDs) are the most common birth defects and the leading cause of non-infectious deaths in infants, with an unknown etiology. We aimed to assess the association of genetic variations in UCP2 gene, dietary factors, and their interactions with the risk of CHDs in offspring. The hospital-based case–control study included 464 mothers of children with CHDs and 504 mothers of healthy children. The exposures of interest were maternal dietary factors in early pregnancy and UCP2 genetic variants. Logistic regression analyses were used to assess the association and interaction of UCP2 gene and dietary factors with CHDs. Our results found that the polymorphisms of UCP2 gene at rs659366 and rs660339, together with maternal dietary factors including excessive intake of pickled vegetables and smoked foods were associated with increased risks of CHDs in offspring. Regular intake of fresh meat, fish and shrimp, and milk products were associated with lower risks of CHDs in offspring. Besides, positive interaction between the dominant model of rs659366 and excessive intake of pickled vegetables was found in the additive interaction model (RERI = 1.19, P = 0.044). These findings provide the theoretical basis for gene screening and a new clue for the prevention of CHDs in offspring.

Highlights

Congenital heart diseases (CHDs) are the most common birth defects and the leading cause of noninfectious deaths in infants, with an unknown etiology
We found that maternal education level, average annual income, history of diabetes, smoking history, second-hand smoke exposure history, history of drinking alcohol, and folic acid supplement in the case group were significantly different from the control group (P < 0.05)
These factors which were significantly different across groups were adjusted when estimating the association of uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) gene polymorphisms and maternal dietary factors with the risk of CHDs

Summary

Introduction

Congenital heart diseases (CHDs) are the most common birth defects and the leading cause of noninfectious deaths in infants, with an unknown etiology. We aimed to assess the association of genetic variations in UCP2 gene, dietary factors, and their interactions with the risk of CHDs in offspring. Logistic regression analyses were used to assess the association and interaction of UCP2 gene and dietary factors with CHDs. Our results found that the polymorphisms of UCP2 gene at rs659366 and rs660339, together with maternal dietary factors including excessive intake of pickled vegetables and smoked foods were associated with increased risks of CHDs in offspring. We speculated that UCP2 gene polymorphisms may be associated with the risk of CHDs. Besides, it is generally believed that more than 85% of CHDs result from complex interactions between genetic variants and environmental factors[23]. It is necessary to further investigate the association of maternal dietary factors based on food categories with the risk of CHDs in offspring

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