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Associations of obesity susceptibility loci with hypertension in Chinese children

International Journal of Obesity volume 37, pages 926–930 (2013)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Context:

Recent genome-wide association studies have identified several single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are associated with body mass index (BMI)/obesity.

Objective:

As obesity is an independent risk factor for hypertension, the objective of the study was to investigate the associations of obesity susceptibility loci with blood pressure (BP)/hypertension in a population of Chinese children.

Design, setting and participants:

This was a genotype–phenotype association study. Participants included 3077 Chinese children, aged 6–18 years. Based on the Chinese age- and sex-specific BP standards, 619 hypertensive cases and 2458 controls with normal BP were identified.

Main outcome measures:

BP was measured by auscultation using a standard clinical sphygmomanometer.

Results:

Of the 11 SNPs, only FTO rs9939609 was significantly associated with systolic BP (SBP; P=0.034) and three SNPs were significantly associated with diastolic BP (DBP; GNPDA2 rs10938397: P=0.026; FAIM2 rs7138803: P=0.015; NPC1 rs1805081: P=0.031) after adjustment for age, sex and hypertension status. In addition, three SNPs were significantly associated with hypertension risk after adjustment for age and sex (FTO rs9939609: odds ratio (OR)=1.35, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.12–1.62, P=0.001; MC4R rs17782313: OR=1.22, 95% CI 1.06–1.42, P=0.007; GNPDA2 rs10938397: OR=1.17, 95% CI 1.02–1.34, P=0.021). After additional adjustment for BMI, none remained significant. The genetic risk score (GRS), based on three significant SNPs (FTO rs9939609, MC4R rs17782313, GNPDA2 rs10938397), showed a positive association with SBP (P=5.17 × 10−4) and risk of hypertension (OR=1.22, 95% CI 1.12–1.33, P=6.07 × 10−6). Further adjustment for BMI abolished the positive associations (SBP: P=0.220; DBP: P=0.305; hypertension: P=0.052). Only FTO rs9939609 and GRS were statistically associated with hypertension risk in the age- and sex-adjusted model after correction for multiple testing.

Conclusions:

The present study demonstrated that FTO rs9939609 and combined SNPs were significantly associated with risk of hypertension, which seems to be dependent on BMI.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, 2013CB530605), Beijing Health System Leading Talent Grant (2009-1-08), Beijing Key Science and Technology Program (D111100000611002), the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20120131120004) and the Foundation for Outstanding Young Scientist in Shandong Province (BS2011YY026).

Author Contributions

Study concept and design: JM. Acquisition of data: XZ, YS, LW, KH, DH and HC. Analysis and interpretation of data: BX and XZ. Drafting of the manuscript: BX and XZ. Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: BX, XZ, YS, LW, KH, DH, HC, XW and JM. Funding recepients: JM and BX.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Maternal and Child Health Care, School of Public Health, Shandong University, Jinan, China

    B Xi

  2. Department of Epidemiology, Capital Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing, China

    X Zhao, Y Shen, L Wu, D Hou, H Cheng & J Mi

  3. EBM Research Center, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan

    K Hotta

  4. Laboratory of Human Genetics, Beijing Hypertension League Institute, Beijing, China

    X Wang

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  1. B Xi
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Correspondence to J Mi.

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Xi, B., Zhao, X., Shen, Y. et al. Associations of obesity susceptibility loci with hypertension in Chinese children. Int J Obes 37, 926–930 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2013.37

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