[Genetics of pediatric obesity]

Obesity is a major health problem around the globe. The statistics of overweight and obesity at early ages have reached alarming levels and placed our country in the first place in regard to childhood obesity. In the development of obesity two major factors take part, one genetic and the other one environmental. From the perspective of environmental changes both overweight and obesity result from the imbalance in the energy balance: people ingest more energy than they expend. Despite people live in the same obesogenic environment not all of them develop obesity; it requires genetic factors for this to happen. This review focuses on the description of the main methodologies to find genetic markers, as well as the main loci in candidate genes, whose single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are associated with obesity and its comorbidities in children, highlighting the association of these genes in the Mexican population. Knowledge of the genetic markers associated with obesity will help to understand the molecular and physiological mechanisms, the genetic background and changes in body mass index in the Mexican population. This information is useful for the planning of new hypotheses in the search for new biomarkers that can be used in a predictive and preventive way, as well as for the development of new therapeutic strategies.