The Genetic Architecture of the Clustering of Cardiometabolic Risk Factors: A Study of 8- to 17-Year-Old Chinese Twins

Abstract

We explored the genetic architecture of metabolic risk factors of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and their clustering in Chinese boys and girls. Seven metabolic traits (body mass index [BMI], waist circumference [WC], systolic blood pressure [SBP], diastolic blood pressure [DBP], total cholesterol [TC], triglyceride [TG], and uric acid [UA]) were measured in a sample of 1016 twins between 8 and 17 years of age, recruited from the Qingdao Twin Registry. Cholesky, independent pathway, and common pathway models were used to identify the latent genetic structure behind the clustering of these metabolic traits. Genetic architecture of these metabolic traits was largely similar in boys and girls. The highest heritability was found for BMI (a2 = 0.63) in boys and TC (a2 = .69) in girls. Three heritable factors, adiposity (BMI and WC), blood pressure (SBP and DBP), and metabolite factors (TC, TG, and UA), which formed one higher-order latent phenotype, were identified. Latent genetic, common environmental, and unique environmental factors indirectly impacted the three factors through one single latent factor. Our results suggest that there is one latent factor influencing several metabolic traits, which are known risk factors of CVDs in young Chinese twins. Latent genetic, common environmental, and unique environmental factors indirectly imposed on them. These results inform strategies for gene pleiotropic discovery and intervening of CVD risk factors during childhood and adolescence.

Frequency of Consumption of Food Groups and Cardio-Metabolic Risk Factors: A Genetically Informative Twin Study in Sri Lanka

“…In accordance with a Chinese twin study (Ji et al 2020 ), for waist circumference and BMI we found significant effects of shared environment. This is in contrast with studies in Korea and other studies in the Global North (Beekman et al 2002 ; Goode et al 2007 ; Sung et al 2009 ) where there is little or no effect of shared environment.…”

“…Our review of recent, well powered, twin studies found some evidence for the importance of shared environment on cardio-metabolic risk factors (CMR). In a young sample (8–17 years) from the Chinese Qingdao Twin registry (Ji et al 2020 ), sex differences were observed for Body Mass Index (BMI), with higher heritability for males (63%) then females (38%). Shared environmental influences on BMI were only observed in females and were quite substantial (45%).…”