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Updated: Aug 24, 2026
Sample Preparation to Bioinformatics Analysis of DNA Methylation: Association Strategy for Obesity and Related Trait Studies
Published on: May 6, 2022
Higher obesity risk associated with the exon-8 insertion of the UCP2 gene in a Spanish case-control study
Amelia Marti1, Ma Soledad Corbalán, Luis Forga
1Department of Physiology and Nutrition, University of Navarra, and Hospital of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain. amarti@unav.es
Objective:
We conducted a case-control study to examine the association between the risk of obesity and the exon-8 insertion allele in the UCP2 gene.
Methods:
The case series included 157 subjects with a body mass index greater than 30 kg/m(2) (obesity) and no other major disease except for type 2 diabetes; the control series consisted of 150 healthy subjects with a body mass index less than 25 kg/m(2). In total, 307 subjects between ages 20 and 60 y were screened for the exon-8 insertion allele in the UCP2 gene.
Results:
The association between risk of obesity and the UCP2 insertion allele was estimated using multivariate logistic regression. Obesity risk among carriers of the UCP2 insertion allele was slightly higher than among non-carriers (unadjusted odds ratio, 1.42; 95% confidence interval, 0.90 to 2.23); however, when the model was adjusted for sex, age, physical activity, and sedentary lifestyle (hours spent sitting down), a statistically significant odds ratio of obesity (1.94; 95% confidence interval, 1.14 to 3.30; P = 0.01) for carriers of the UCP2 insertion allele was found.
Conclusions:
We found a greater risk of developing obesity among individuals carrying the exon-8 insertion allele in the UCP2 gene, independent of sex, age, physical activity, and sedentary lifestyle, which may partly explain some discrepancies found in the literature.
