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26-Mar-2013
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Contact: Rosie Waldron
[email protected]
020-767-99041
University College London
Childhood body weight is strongly influenced by genes according to new research published today in the International Journal of Obesity
Previous research has shown that obesity runs in families, and twin studies suggest that this is largely due to genetic factors, with heritability estimates over 50%. 32 genes have been identified as risk factors for obesity but previous analyses suggest that these genes alone cannot fully explain the high level of heritability in childhood obesity, as together they explain only 2% of individual differences in childhood body weight. This has led to a problem of ‘missing heritability’.
In this study, researchers used a new method called Genome-wide Complex Trait Analysis (GCTA), to investigate the molecular genetic heritability of body weight in children. GCTA takes advantage of the fact that some people are more genetically similar to one another than others, by chance; and looks to see whether individuals who just happen to be more genetically similar might also be more similar in weight. Using this approach, GCTA estimates the combined effects of all known common genes across the whole genome, associated with childhood body weight.
The study is based on data from a population-based cohort of 2,269 children aged between eight and eleven years old. Researchers looked at whether children who happen to be more genetically similar might also be more similar in body weight. Using the GCTA method, the researchers found that additive effects of multiple genes across the whole genome accounted for 30% of individual difference in childhood body weight.
Clare Llewellyn from UCL Health Behaviour Research Centre and lead author of the study, said: “These findings are important because they confirm that in children genes play a very important role in determining body weight. At present only a few genetic variants have been discovered, and these explain a very small amount of individual differences in body weight (~2%). These findings suggest there are hundreds of other genetic variants influencing body weight that are yet to be discoveredâ€.
This study underlines the importance of genetic effects in childhood obesity, supporting the current thinking that children of obese parents are most at risk of becoming obese.
Notes for Editors
1. For more information or to speak to Clare Llewellyn, please contact Rosie Waldron in the UCL Media Relations Office on tel: 44-020-7679-9041, out of hours 44-07917-271-364, e-mail: [email protected]
2. ‘Finding the missing heritability in paediatric obesity: The contribution of genome-wide complex trait analysis’ is published online in the journal International Journal of Obesity. For copies of the paper please contact UCL Media Relations.
About UCL (University College London)
Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine.
We are among the world’s top universities, as reflected by our performance in a range of international rankings and tables. According to the Thomson Scientific Citation Index, UCL is the second most highly cited European university and the 15th most highly cited in the world.
UCL has nearly 25,000 students from 150 countries and more than 9,000 employees, of whom one third are from outside the UK. The university is based in Bloomsbury in the heart of London, but also has two international campuses UCL Australia and UCL Qatar. Our annual income is more than 800 million.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk | Follow us on Twitter @uclnews | Watch our YouTube channel YouTube.com/UCLTV
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