Relationship between tumor necrosis factor-α gene G-308A polymorphisms and obesity in children

Abstract

Objective To investigate the correlation of the plasma tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) levels and the distribution frequency of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP)-308 in children. Methods A total of 265 children were randomly divided into obese group(n=147)and non-obese group(n=118). All subjects were evaluated for waist circumference (WC), hip circumference, waist to hip ratio (WHR), percentage of body fat(BF%), blood pressure, triglycerides(TG), total cholesterol(TC), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol(HDL-C), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), fasting blood glucose (FBG), fasting insulin (FINS), plasma TNF-α levels and homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). TNF-α gene -308 polymorphism were assayed by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). Chi-square test with count data and t-test or ANOVA was used for data analysis. Results The plasma TNF-α levels increased in obese children compared to non-obese children (t=8.855, P 0.05) or genotype(χ2=2.082, P>0.05)frequency of SNP-308 between obese and health children. The differences of plasma TNF-α, WC, WHR, systolic blood pressure, BF%, TC, LDL-C, FBG, FINS and HOMA-IR in children with wild homozygous GG and carriers of A allele of TNF-α polymorphism gene did not show significance in statistics. Conclusion There was no association between TNF-α gene SNP-308 and children obesity. Key words: Tumor necrosis factor alpha; Polymorphisms, single nucleotide; Obesity; Child