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G-protein beta3 subunit gene splice variant in obesity and overweight
A V Benjafield1, R C Lin, B Dalziel
1Basic & Clinical Genomics Laboratory, Department of Physiology and Institute for Biomedical Research, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
Objective:
To determine whether the C825T polymorphism of the G-protein beta3 subunit gene (GNB3) is associated with overweight and obesity. This polymorphism leads to a splice variant (Gbeta3-s) with higher activity and very strong association with essential hypertension.
Design:
A cross-sectional case-control study.
Subjects:
The sets of affected and control British/European Caucasian subjects used were: (i) an obesity clinic group most of whom had "morbid obesity" (mean body mass index (BMI) for group=43+/-8 kg/m(2)) and non-obese controls (BMI< or =30); (ii) a group of overweight/obese healthy normotensive community volunteers (BMI>25; mean 29+/-5) and controls (BMI< or =25; mean 23+/-1); (iii) a group of overweight/obese hypertensive patients (BMI>25; mean 30+/-4) and lean hypertensive controls (BMI< or =25; mean=23+/-2).
Measurements:
BMI, blood pressure, serum lipids, alleles of GNB3 polymorphism.
Results:
Compared with control, frequency of the T allele in obese subjects was higher by 12% in (i), 17% in (ii) and 28% in (iii), but the differences were not statistically significant. Slight tracking of the T allele with elevation in BMI was, however, observed, in the obesity clinic group (P=0.018).
Conclusion:
The C825T splice variant of GNB3 makes little if any contribution to obesity in the groups we tested.