ESPE Abstracts

Background: Several visfatin, retinol binding protein 4(RBP4) and high affinity receptor for RBP4, STRA6 (stimulated by retinoic acid) single nuclear polymorphisms’ (SNP) have been investigated regarding their relationship with obesity with controversial results.

Aim: To analyze the association of two specific SNP for visfatin, RBP4 and STRA6 with anthropometric markers of obesity in children.

Material and method: A case control study was conducted on a sample of obese children and age and sex-matched controls evaluated in the Endocrinology Department of the Mures County Hospital. Variables analyzed: age, sex, environment, BMI standard deviation score (SDS) according to WHO reference, waist circumference SDS, bicipital skinfold SDS, 2 SNP for visfatin – rs4730153 and rs2302559, 2 for RBP 4 – rs3758539 and rs10882280 and two for STRA6 – rs974456 and rs351224. Statistical analysis used SPSS v.17.0 with a level of significance of α=0.05.

Results: 124 obese and 81 age and sex-matched control subjects were assessed with a mean age of 11.5±2.8 years for the cases and 11.7±3.3 years for controls. There is no significant association between the various genotypes analyzed and anthropometric markers. The presence of allele T of the rs2302559 (OR=0.558, 95%CI 0.317–0.984, P=0.046) and allele A for the rs4730153 (OR 0.532, 95% CI 0.297–0.952, P=0.037) have a protective role against obesity defined by BMI SDS.

Conclusions: Visfatin gene SNP might be associated with childhood obesity, but further larger studies in order to confirm the association at population levels is needed.