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Background: Several studies hinted about the clustering of risk variables of the metabolic syndrome (MS) and suggested that the underlying genetic polymorphisms could be responsible for the increasing incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) in people of Indian origin. Therefore, identification of the components of the MS along with the genetic factors could be one of the aspects to make an attempt to prevent the increasing incidence of CHD. Materials and Methods: Principal component factor analysis (PCFA) was undertaken to identify the components or factors of the MS among the adult (⩾30 years) Asian Indians living in and around Calcutta, India. The study comprised 350 adult Asian Indians. Anthropometric measurements were taken, and lipid profiles, blood pressure and fasting blood glucose were measured for each participant. Two genetic polymorphisms, namely, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) gene polymorphism (insertion/deletion [I/D]) or ACE (I/D) and apolipoproteinE (Hha I) were also studied. Results: PCFA revealed 3 factors that cumulatively explained 65.39% of the observed variance of the MS by measured variables. The 3 factors identified were lipids and lipoprotein (Factor 1), centripetal fat and blood pressure (Factor 2), and ACE (I/D) polymorphism with blood pressure (Factor 3). Moreover, the first 2 factors, that is, lipids, lipoprotein, centripetal fat, and blood pressures cumulatively explained ∼46% (45.94%) of the observed variance of MS in this population. Conclusions: Since more than 1 factor was identified for the MS phenotype, more than 1 physiogenetic mechanism could be accounted for MS in the Asian Indian population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high incidence of obesity has resulted in increased morbidity and mortality worldwide. Obesity, a common lifestyle disorder, is caused by multiple factors with heredity playing a strong causal role. Recently, a genetic variation upstream of insulin-induced gene 2 ( INSIG2) (rs7566605) has been reported to be associated with obesity in four separate cohorts. Because the lifestyle and food preferences of a large proportion of Indian population differ from the rest of the world, we studied the impact of this polymorphism with body mass index (BMI). The study consisted of two cohorts – 1577 healthy individuals from three major linguistic lineages in India and 610 coronary artery disease cases and controls. In the two cohorts studied, no significant association was observed between the polymorphism and BMI. However, frequency of homozygous variant genotype was higher in non-obese individuals as compared with obese individuals in both cohorts although the difference was marginally significant only in the case–control cohort under the assumption of a recessive model. Furthermore, regardless of age and sex, mean BMI did not vary with genotype under the assumptions of recessive model. Thus, in contrast to earlier reports, the variant upstream of INSIG2 is not a determinant of BMI in Indian population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]