Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 15, 2026
Generation of High Quality Chromatin Immunoprecipitation DNA Template for High-throughput Sequencing ChIP-seq
Published on: April 19, 2013
Genetic Predisposition to Central Obesity and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: Two Independent Cohort Studies
Tao Huang1, Qibin Qi2, Yan Zheng1
1Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
Objective:
Abdominal obesity is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes (T2D). We aimed to examine the association between the genetic predisposition to central obesity, assessed by the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) genetic score, and T2D risk.
Research Design And Methods:
The current study included 2,591 participants with T2D and 3,052 participants without T2D of European ancestry from the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS). Genetic predisposition to central obesity was estimated using a genetic score based on 14 established loci for the WHR.
Results:
We found that the central obesity genetic score was linearly related to higher T2D risk. Results were similar in the NHS (women) and HPFS (men). In combined results, each point of the central obesity genetic score was associated with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.04 (95% CI 1.01-1.07) for developing T2D, and the OR was 1.24 (1.03-1.45) when comparing extreme quartiles of the genetic score after multivariate adjustment.
Conclusions:
The data indicate that genetic predisposition to central obesity is associated with higher T2D risk. This association is mediated by central obesity.
