Association analysis of FTO gene polymorphisms with obesity in Greek adults

Nowadays, obesity is the greatest scourge worldwide, particularly for the developed countries and is a huge burden for the public health. Over the past decade, GWAS have revealed a number of genes associated with obesity. The fat mass and obesity associated (FTO) gene was the first one associated with obesity in a significant number of populations and recent meta-analysis studies confirm this association. FTO is a N-methyladenosine demethylase and in addition to the genetic association, its biological role in the regulation of body weight has been documented. Due to lack of replication regarding FTO association with obesity in the Greek adult population, we analyzed three SNPs, i.e. rs9939609, rs9930506 and rs3751812 in a cohort of 203 adults, comprising of 95 obese, 58 overweight and 50 control individuals. Analysis has shown a significant association for FTO (rs9930506; A/G) 'G' allele with obesity and a difference by 3.2 BMI units between the two homozygotes (AA versus GG). This association, which was detected for the first time in this population, suggests that FTO rs9930506 is a predisposition marker to obesity in the Greek adults, but the results should be taken cautiously due to the limitation of the relatively small sample size of the subjects.