Researchers ID Gene-Diet Interaction

BOSTONTufts University researchers have identified a gene-diet interaction that appears to influence body weight and have replicated their findings in three independent studies. Men and women carrying the CC genotype demonstrated higher body mass index (BMI) scores and a higher incidence of obesity, but only if they consumed a diet high in saturated fat. These associations were seen in the apolipoprotein A-II gene (APOA2) promoter.

We believe this is the first time a gene-diet interaction influencing BMI and obesity has been replicated in as many as three independent study populations, said corresponding and senior author Jose Ordovas, PhD, director of the Nutrition and Genomics Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts. Our findings strengthen support for the science of nutrigenomics and are another step toward the goal of individually tailoring dietary recommendations to lower risk of chronic disease or conditions like obesity. 

The study, published in the Nov. 9 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, examines gene-diet interactions in the APOA2 promoter, a region of DNA controlling expression of the APOA2 gene. Proteins responding to some nutrients in food interact with promoters which dictate how genes behave. There are two variants or alleles of the APOA2 promoter, T and C. They exist in three genotypes: CC, TT and TC. 

Across all three studies, the CC carriers who consumed high-saturated fat diets had the highest BMIs compared to the TT and TC genotypes and, most notably, other CC carriers who reported consuming low-saturated fat diets, said first author Dolores Corella, PhD,  Professor at the Valencia University-CIBER Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (Spain), and visiting scientist in the Nutrition and Genomics Laboratory at the USDA HNRCA. This work is based on a 2-year-old study finding genotypes influence food preferences, calorie intake and BMI.

In the previous study, Ordovas, Corella and colleagues found men and women with the CC genotype had a statistically significant higher intake of fat than the TT and TC genotype groups. Additionally, CC carriers ate about 200 more calories per day and were about twice as likely to be obese.

The authors saw the same results for obesity prevalence within the CC genotype in the present study. We saw a strong association between obesity and high saturated-fat intake, but again, there was no significant association between the two in CC carriers with low saturated-fat intake or in TT or TC carriers, Corella added.