Association of MACROD2 gene variants with obesity and physical activity in a Korean population

Obesity is a serious and common complex disease caused by the influence of genetic and environmental factors. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the effect of genetic variants on obesity and the possibility of preventing obesity through physical activity using association analysis.

This study analyzed the association between obesity and variants in the MACROD2 gene in the Korean association resource (KARE) cohort using logistic regression analysis. Linear regression analysis was performed for obesity-related phenotype traits including body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage (BFP), abdominal fat percentage (AbFP), and the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). The level of physical activity was analyzed by dividing the participants into two groups according to the cutoff of one hour or more of daily intense activity.

As a result, rs6079275 in the MACROD2 gene had the highest significance in obesity and phenotypic characteristics. Minor allele carriers (CC, CG) of rs6079275 decreased the obesity risk (OR = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.40-0.82, p = 2.34 × 10^-3 ) and showed a tendency to decrease the risk of BMI (β = -0.312, p = 8.99 × 10^-4 ), BFP (β = -0.482, p = 4.19 × 10^-3 ) and AbFP (β = -0.0051, p = 5.96 × 10^-4 ). In addition, the participants with the minor allele (C) of rs6079275 had a reduced obesity risk with high physical activity (OR = 0.23, 95% CI: 0.14-0.93, p = 0.036).

This study demonstrated that variants in the MACROD2 gene were correlated with obesity, phenotypic traits, and physical activity in the Korean population. Therefore, we suggest the possibility of preventing obesity by identifying this genetic variation and the interactive effect of lifestyle in Koreans.