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Clinical Studies and Practice

Assessing genetic and environmental influences on epicardial and abdominal adipose tissue quantities: a classical twin study

International Journal of Obesity volume 42, pages 163–168 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

Various adipose tissue compartments play an important role in the development of cardiometabolic diseases. The quantity of different fat compartments is influenced by genetic and environmental factors. The aim of our study was to evaluate the magnitude of genetic and environmental effects on epicardial, subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue (EAT, SAT and VAT) quantities in a cohort of adult twin pairs.

Subjects/Methods:

In this cross-sectional study we investigated adult twins (57 monozygotic (MZ) and 33 dizygotic (DZ) same-gender twin pairs; 180 twin subjects). We measured EAT volume using electrocardiogram-gated native computed tomography (CT) scan of the heart, and abdominal SAT and VAT areas were quantified between the third and fourth lumbar vertebra on native CT images. We calculated genetic and environmental impact on the size of various adipose tissue compartments by analyzing co-twin correlations in MZ and DZ pairs separately, and furthermore by using genetic structural equation models.

Results:

In co-twin analysis, MZ twins had stronger correlations than DZ twins for EAT (rMZ=0.81, rDZ=0.32), similar to SAT and VAT quantities (rMZ=0.80, rDZ=0.68 and rMZ=0.79, rDZ=0.48, respectively). In multi-trait model fitting analysis, the overall contribution of genetic factors to EAT, SAT and VAT volumes were 80%, 78% and 70%, whereas environmental factors were 20%, 22% and 30%, respectively. Common pathway model analyses indicated that none of the EAT, SAT and VAT phenotypes was independent of the other two.

Conclusions:

Genetic factors have substantial influence, while environmental factors have only a modest impact on EAT volume, abdominal SAT and VAT quantities. There is a considerable amount of common genetic background influencing the quantities of all three adipose tissue compartments.

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Acknowledgements

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. The study was supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office of Hungary (NKFIA; NVKP-16-1-2016–0017).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. MTA-SE Cardiovascular Imaging Research Group, Heart and Vascular Center, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary

    A L Jermendy, M Kolossvary, Z D Drobni, J Karady, B Merkely & P Maurovich-Horvat

  2. Department of Radiology, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary

    A D Tarnoki & D L Tarnoki

  3. Global Genomics Group, Atlanta, GA, USA

    S Voros

  4. Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands

    H J Lamb

  5. Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Hospital, Budapest, Hungary

    G Jermendy

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  1. A L Jermendy
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  2. M Kolossvary
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  4. A D Tarnoki
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  5. D L Tarnoki
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  9. B Merkely
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to P Maurovich-Horvat.

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Competing interests

GJ received a research grant from New Horizons Programme of the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD). SV is a shareholder in Global Genomics Group, LLC, and receives salary from Global Genomics Group, LLC. All other authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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Jermendy, A., Kolossvary, M., Drobni, Z. et al. Assessing genetic and environmental influences on epicardial and abdominal adipose tissue quantities: a classical twin study. Int J Obes 42, 163–168 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2017.212

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