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Are recently identified genetic variants regulating BMI in the general population associated with anorexia nervosa?
Marek K Brandys1, Annemarie A van Elburg2,3, Ruth J F Loos4
1Department of Neuroscience & Pharmacology, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, University Medical Center Utrecht, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
The influence of body mass index (BMI) on susceptibility to anorexia nervosa (AN) is not clear. Recently published genome-wide association (GWA) studies of the general population identified several variants influencing BMI. We genotyped these variants in an AN sample to test for association and to investigate a combined effect of BMI-increasing alleles (as determined in the original GWA studies) on the risk of developing the disease. Individual single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were tested for association with AN in a sample of 267 AN patients and 1,636 population controls. A logistic regression for the combined effect of BMI-increasing alleles included 225 cases and 1,351 controls. We found no significant association between individual SNPs and AN. The analysis of a combined effect of BMI-increasing alleles showed absence of association with the investigated condition. The percentages of BMI-increasing alleles were equal between cases and controls. This study found no evidence that genetic variants regulating BMI in the general population are significantly associated with susceptibility to AN.
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