Endocrine Abstracts

Background: The association between fat mass and obesity-associated gene (FTO) polymorphism rs 9939609 and obesity was found in some European countries. However, the data concerning Polish population is insufficient. The relationship between FTO and metabolic disorders remains unclear.

Methods: The study group consisted of 686 women and 418 men from Lower Silesia in Poland, aged 30–80 years (mean age 54.2±9.26 years). The examination included anthropometric measurements, blood pressure, lipid profile and fasting blood glucose analysis. The group was genotyped for FTO rs9939609 polymorphism.

Results: Mean BMI was 28.2±5.0 kg/m² and was slightly higher in men. Prevalence of obesity (BMI >30 kg/m²) was around 31% with no sex differences. Minor allele frequency was 0.44. In whole study group, mean BMI was higher in risk allele carriers (AA, AT) than TT homozygotes (AA – 28.45 kg/m², AT – 28.41 kg/m² vs TT – 27.8 kg/m²), but the difference was not statistically significant. The association between FTO polymorphism and obesity traits were stronger in men than in women (p-values, respectively: for body weight 0.0005 vs >0.1, for BMI <0.01 vs >0.1, for waist circumference 0.0005 vs >0.1 in co-dominant model). We did not observe any association between FTO polymorphism and dyslipidaemia, hypertension or higher blood glucose concentration.

Conclusions: FTO polymorphism is one of many factors influencing body mass in Polish population. The effect on other metabolic disturbances is not significant. The reasons why the association between FTO and obesity were more pronounced in men than women remain unclear. Probably age, degree of obesity or other hormonal factors modify the clinical presentation of genetic predisposition.