Meta‐analysis Added Power to Identify Variants in FTO Associated With Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity in the Asian Population

Abstract

Several common variants in the intron 1 of FTO (fat mass and associated obesity) gene have been reliably associated with BMI and obesity in European populations. We analyzed two variants (rs9939609 and rs8050136) in 4,189 Chinese Han individuals and conducted a meta‐analysis of published studies in Asian population to investigate whether these variants are associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and obesity in Asian population. In this study, both the minor allele A of rs9939609 and the minor allele A of rs805136 were associated with increased risk of T2D, independent of measures of BMI; the odds ratios (ORs) per copy of the risk allele were 1.19 for rs9939609 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.04–1.37; P = 0.01) and 1.22 for rs8050136 (95% CI, 1.07–1.40; P = 0.004) after adjusting for age, sex, and BMI. Our results also showed association with risk of obesity (rs9939609: OR = 1.39 (95% CI 1.04–1.85), P = 0.02; rs8050136: OR = 1.45 (95% CI 1.09–1.93), P = 0.01) but no association with overweight. These results were consistent with the pooled results from our meta‐analysis study (for diabetes, rs8050136, P = 1.3 × 10−3; rs9939609, P = 9.8 × 10−4; for obesity, rs8050136, P = 2.2 × 10−7; rs9939609, P = 9.0 × 10−9). Our findings indicate that the two variants (rs9939609 and rs8050136) in the FTO gene contribute to obesity and T2D in the Asian populations.

Association of genetic variants for susceptibility to obesity with type 2 diabetes in Japanese individuals

“…2) the data from the genetic studies examining type 2 diabetes Those showing significant (black circles) and non-significant (white circles) association with BMI in Japanese are depicted. SNP rs numbers of individual loci are as follows: rs2815752 for NEGR1, rs10913469 for SEC16B, rs4854344 for TMEM18, rs7647305 for ETV5, rs10938397 for GNPDA2, rs2844479 for NCR3, rs6265 for BDNF, rs10838738 for MTCH2, rs7138803 for BCDIN3D, rs4788102 for SH2B1, rs6499640 for FTO(1), rs9939609 for FTO(2), rs12970134 for MC4R and rs29941 for KCTD15 association at the FTO locus [3,11,24,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42], our aim being to evaluate the relationship between BMI in the control group (or derived population) and the OR for type 2 diabetes. We detected no apparent relationship between the tested variables (p=0.15 for East Asians and p=0.41 for Europeans; Fig.…”

Genetic variants on chromosome 6p21.1 and 6p22.3 are associated with type 2 diabetes risk: a case–control study in Han Chinese

“…All the controls were randomly selected from the subjects with normal fasting glucose defined as FBGo5.6 mmol l À1 and were frequency-matched to cases on the age of interview, sex and residential area (urban and rural). 19,20 The subjects who self-reported having diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease and cancer in the baseline or follow-up were all excluded from the controls. A questionnaire was completed by trained interviewers to collect information on demographic characteristics, risk factors, physical activity and disease history after the written informed consent was obtained from every subject.…”

Effect of six type II diabetes susceptibility loci and an FTO variant on obesity in Pakistani subjects

“…26 The SNP is reported to have a high minor allele frequency in Caucasians (∼0.4) but very low in Asian population (∼0.1), whereas its association with obesity and type II diabetes has been confirmed in many populations but not in Chinese Han subjects. 11,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][34][35][36][37][38] The six GWAS SNPs were found to be associated with type II diabetes and have been replicated for Chinese and Japanese populations only for association with type II diabetes. [27][28][29] However, these SNPs have not been previously studied with respect to obesity, and the Pakistani population represents an interesting ethnic group because of the many cultural and social restrictions and with an increasing rate of obesity and type II diabetes.…”