Lack of Association of the <i>Ghrelin</i> Gene Arg51Gln Single Nucleotide Polymorphism with Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome among Multi-ethnic Malaysian Subjects

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Obesity and metabolic syndrome has become a public health concern because of its association with a number of med ical co mplications that lead to increased morb idity and mo rtality. Gh relin is a hormone that is primarily secreted in the stomach, which plays an important role to increase hunger through its action on hypothalamic feed ing. The Ghrelin gene Arg51Gln single nucleotide poly morphism (SNP) (rs34911341) has been associated with obesity and metabolic syndrome in previous studies. Therefore, this study was to examine the prevalence of this SNP and its association with obesity, obesity-related traits and metabolic syndrome among 184 mult i-ethnic Malaysian subjects (67 males, 117 females; 76 obese, 108 non obese; 52 Malay, 91 ethnic Ch inese, 41 ethnic Indians) fro m the Kampar Health Clinic cohort. Demographic data, anthropometric and clinical measurements of subjects were collected. Genotyping was performed b y using the geno mic DNA extracted fro m leukocytes, followed by Poly merase Chain Reaction and SacI Restriction Frag ment Length Poly morphism, revealing 113 GG, 70 GA and 1 AA subjects ; minor allele frequency 0.196. Arg 51Gln alleles did not show any association with obesity (p = 0.643), gender (p = 0.064) and ethnicity (p = 0.390). Besides, it d id not show any association with the presence of metabolic syndrome according to 3 criteria in the modified NCEP ATP III for Asians ( p = 0.931). Anthropometric and clinical measurements indicative of obesity and metabolic syndrome were also all not significantly different between the alleles. In conclusion, the Ghrelin Arg51Gln gene variant was not associated with obesity, obesity-related traits and metabolic syndrome among Malaysian subjects in this study.