Insights into the multifactorial causation of obesity by integrated genetic and epigenetic analysis

Obesity is a highly heritable multifactorial disease that places an enormous burden on human health. Its increasing prevalence and the concomitant-reduced life expectancy has intensified the search for new analytical methods that can reduce the knowledge gap between genetic susceptibility and functional consequences of the disease pathology. Although the influence of genetics and epigenetics has been studied independently in the past, there is increasing evidence that genetic variants interact with environmental factors through epigenetic regulation. This suggests that a combined analysis of genetic and epigenetic variation may be more effective in characterizing the obesity phenotype. To date, limited genome-wide integrative analyses have been performed. In this review, we provide an overview of the latest findings, advantages, and challenges and discuss future perspectives.