Association of MTHFR C677T and ABCA1 G656A polymorphisms with obesity among Egyptian children

Abstract

AimObesity is currently a worldwide public health problem which is associated with a number of polymorphisms of genes involved in its pathogenesis. This study aimed to clarify the association between genetic variations within methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) and ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) genes and obesity in an Egyptian children and adolescents population. MethodAnthropometric parameters along with serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol were measured, in addition to genotyping of MTHFR C677T and ABCA1 G656A polymorphisms using allelic discrimination assay in 51 obese child and adolescent and 30 sex and age-matched healthy subjects. ResultsCompared to control, obese subjects showed a significant difference in the presence of C677T polymorphism, but not G656A (p = 0.001 and p = 0.214, respectively). Neither single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) showed significant differences in serum lipid levels among different genotypes in control and obese groups except for high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol which appeared to be influenced by G656A polymorphism (p = 0.020 and p = 0.032, respectively). C677T polymorphism increased the susceptibility to obesity under all genetic models while G656A polymorphism failed to show any association with the predisposition of developing obesity. SNP-SNP interaction showed that CT/AG carriers are at a higher risk to develop obesity compared to wild type carriers (p = 0.005). ConclusionMTHFR C677T polymorphism may contribute to the development of obesity while there is no association related ABCA1 G656A polymorphism with simple obesity among Egyptian children and adolescents. Joint effects of the two genes revealed that the carriers of the mutant alleles of both MTHFR and ABCA1 are at high risk to develop obesity.