Zeitschrift für Adipositas- und Gewichtsverlusttherapie

Abstrakt

The Serotonin 2A receptor (SER 2A) Gene Polymorphism and its association with Obesity and Dyslipidemia in Semi Urban Subjects of Tamilnadu, South India

Shajithanoop S, Tamilselvi periyasamy,Rathinavel SM and Usha Rani MV

Background: Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that regulates many physiological processes such as appetite, hunger, hormone secretion and sleep. Abnormalities in the serotonin transmission pathway have been implicated in obesity but no studies in Asian Indians of South India have been conducted so far. Objective: This case - control study (n=374) on semi urban subjects of Tamil Nadu, India was conducted to analyse the association of 1438 G/A polymorphism in serotonin receptor gene with obesity, dyslipidemia and smoking. Methodology: A detailed Questionnaire based interview was conducted between the years 2006 and 2011. Obese subjects (n =325) who visited the obesity unit of the hospital were recruited by purposive random sampling method, with informed and written consent. Anthropometry and clinical analysis was performed. A questionnaire based interview was adopted and Genotyping was carried out by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. Results: Gender wise, in obese cases, the frequency of the GG genotype (0.49) was higher in females than males. In obese males the frequency of the GA genotype (0.43) was higher than the frequencies GG genotype (0.39) and AA genotype (0.16). Furthermore, subjects with GG genotype had eight times higher risk of developing obesity (Odds ratio: 8.06, P = 0.00 & 95 % Confidence interval = 4.14 – 15.69) and subjects with GG genotype for serotonin 2A receptor had four times higher risk (Odds ratio 4.6, P = 0.000, 95% Confidence interval = 2.32 – 9.12) for developing hypertriglyceridemia. Discussion: Though the frequency of the AA genotype was comparably lower in obese cases than in controls (p<0.05), the AA genotype had a more pronounced effect on clinical factors namely BMI, WHR and TGL levels.