Protective Association of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms rs1861868-FTO and rs7975232-VDR and Obesity in Saudi Females

Lubna Ibrahim Al Asoom; Dina Tariq Al Afandi; Aseel Salah Al Abdulhadi; Nazish Rafique; Shahanas Chathoth; Ahmad A Al Sunni

doi:10.2147/IJGM.S251466

Protective Association of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms rs1861868-FTO and rs7975232-VDR and Obesity in Saudi Females

Int J Gen Med. 2020 May 27:13:235-241. doi: 10.2147/IJGM.S251466. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Lubna Ibrahim Al Asoom¹, Dina Tariq Al Afandi², Aseel Salah Al Abdulhadi³, Nazish Rafique¹, Shahanas Chathoth⁴, Ahmad A Al Sunni¹

Affiliations

¹ Physiology Department, College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
² Pediatrics Department, King Fahd Hospital of the University, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
³ Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Biochemistry Department, College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Background: Obesity is a major health threat worldwide. It predisposes individuals to diabetes, cardiovascular complications, and cancer. Genetic and environmental factors are responsible for the increasing incidence of obesity. In this study, we investigated the genetic factors associated with obesity in young Saudi women.

Subjects and methods: In this cross-sectional study, 131 young Saudi female students were recruited. Body mass index (BMI), waist-hip ratio, blood glucose, triglyceride, cholesterol, HDL, LDL, and vitamin D3 levels of the subjects were determined. Twelve SNPs of different genes that showed a correlation with obesity in different population were tested, namely GNPDA2 (rs10938397), TCF7L2 (rs10885409), FTO (rs1477196), ADIPOQ (rs1501299), MC4R (rs17782313), ABCA1 (rs1800977), FTO (rs1861868), VDR (rs2228570), VDR (rs731236), VDR (rs7975232), ADIPOQ (rs266729), and PFPK (rs6602024). Student's t-test was conducted for all parameters. Pearson correlation was performed to identify the correlated variables. The frequencies of different risk alleles were determined by direct counting of the test allele divided by the total number of alleles and compared.

Results: Only two SNPs, rs1861868 of FTO and rs7975232 of VDR, of the twelve tested SNPs showed significant protective associations with the BMI with odds ratio 0.3886 (0.1761-0.8572); p 0.0192 and odds ratio 0.4563 (0.2343-0.8888); p 0.0211, respectively.

Conclusion: The current study showed that minor alleles, "T" of FTO and "A" of VDR, might be protective factors against increased BMI in young Saudi female subjects. To elucidate this association, further studies with larger sample size involving both sexes are required.

Keywords: BMI; FTO gene; VDR gene; body weight; obesity; polymorphism.