Developmental changes in adiposity in toddlers and preschoolers in the GENESIS study and associations with the ACE I/D polymorphism

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the relationship between the angiotensin I-converting enzyme 1 (ACE) I/D polymorphism and adiposity-related phenotypes in a large cohort of toddlers and preschoolers. Methods: Body composition measurements and DNA samples were obtained from 2102 Greek children aged 1-6 years, as part of a large-scale epidemiological study (GENESIS). All children were genotyped for the ACE I/D polymorphism and gender-and age-stratified statistical analyses were performed. Results: In girls aged 4-6 years, the D-allele was associated with higher measurements of body mass index (BMI) (P ¼ 0.018), waist (P ¼ 0.001) and upper arm (P ¼ 0.013) circumferences, genotype accounting for 2.5, 4 and 3% of the phenotypic variance, respectively. In boys, the D-allele showed strong associations with lower BMI (P ¼ 0.001) at the age of 1-2 years that explained 17% of the phenotypic variance and with larger suprailiac skinfold (P ¼ 0.008) at 3-4 years old that explained 2% of the variance. No other significant associations between the ACE I/D polymorphism and adiposity-related phenotypes were found. In girls, the age at which significant associations were revealed coincided with the age at which BMI was observed to increase after its developmental nadir, but this feature of the association was not observed in boys. Conclusions: The ACE I/D polymorphism is associated with developmental and physiological changes in adiposity-related traits during early childhood in a gender-and age-specific manner.

Potential association of obesity with IL6 G-174C polymorphism and TTV infections

“…Similarly, these polymorphisms were not associated with indexes of obesity in the Chinese population [60], Korean [61] and Iranian females [62] or Romanian T2DM patients [63]. In contrast with these data, the ACE ID variants [64][65][66] and the AT1R CC genotype [67] were associated with markers of obesity in other studies.…”

Angiotensin-converting enzyme gene insertion/deletion polymorphism in nutritional disorders in children

“…Studies in the Czech Republic [6] showed that I/D polymorphisms of ACE gene were correlated with obesity [15][16][17]30] in children and adults as well. They explained that 47 % of the plasma variation of ACE activity is due to a polymorphism located in intron 16 of the ACE gene, and the increased ACE activity is associated with D allele [31].…”

“…Based on the previously mentioned studies [10,[15][16][17], we investigated the role of ACE gene polymorphisms (I/D) in obese or malnourished children by comparing mentioned polymorphisms with anthropometric measurements (BMI-body mass index, MUAC-middle upper arm circumference and TST-tricipital skinfold thickness) and some laboratory analysis, as well as establishing correlations between the two groups and the control group. From the laboratory parameters, we have chosen protein and albumin levels because they better characterize the nutritional state.…”

“…Among them, the ACE insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism is found to be more frequently associated with obesity-related phenotypes [10,[15][16][17]. It cannot be accurately determined whether the I/D polymorphism is a functional variant; however, these associations are probably modulated through linkage disequilibrium with a functional variant.…”

Effect of ID ACE gene polymorphism on dietary composition and obesity-related anthropometric parameters in the Czech adult population

“…The common insertion/deletion polymorphism (ID ACE; rs 4646994) in the gene for angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) was previously associated with obesity [3,15,19,30], both in preschoolers, adolescents and adults. Previously, it has been also reported that approximately 47% of the variance in plasma ACE activity can be explained by this polymorphism located in intron 16 of the ACE gene, the D allele being associated with increased ACE activity [25].…”