Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Fat mass and obesity associated (FTO) gene was the first susceptibility locus for obesity identified by genome wide association studies. The association of the FTO gene with obesity and metabolic syndrome is conflicting in both adults and adolescents. The aim of this study was to examine the role of the FTO gene variant rs9939609 as a candidate gene for obesity and metabolic syndrome, among Caucasian adolescents in South-eastern Turkey.

Methods: One hundred obese adolescents and 100 healthy controls were included. Obesity and metabolic syndrome were defined according to the international obesity task force’s international standards and to the NCEP criteria, respectively. Rs9939609 polymorphism in FTO gene was genotyped by PCR–SNaPshot.

Results: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 60%. For FTO T/A polymorphism, the distribution of T/T, T/A, and A/A genotypes was 32.0, 48.0 and 20.0% in obese children compared with 41.0, 36.0 and 23.0% in controls (P>0.05). The allele frequency of T and A was 56.0, 44.0% in patients compared with 59.0, 41.0% in controls (P=0.306). There was no significant difference in genotype and allele frequencies between obese patients and controls. Also, the distribution of genotypes and alleles was not different in patients with and without MetS. However, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in female patients with A allele carriers was more frequent than with non-carriers (carriers: 23/36, 63.9%; non-carriers: 4/14, 28.6%; χ²=5.062; P=0.024).

Conclusion: We could not confirm the FTO rs9939609 variant as an obesity and metabolic syndrome susceptibility gene in adolescents, but we observe an association with metabolic syndrome in girls. There is a need to explain the possible gender effect of FTO gene polymorphism.