Search

Recent studies have reported associations of sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to both obesity and BMI. This study was designed to investigate association between SIRT1 SNPs, SIRT1 gene expression and obesity. Case-control analyses were performed using 1,533 obese subjects (896 adults, BMI >40 kg/m(2) and 637 children, BMI >97th percentile for age and sex) and 1,237 nonobese controls, all French Caucasians. Two SNPs (in high linkage disequilibrium (LD), r(2) = 0.96) were significantly associated with adult obesity, rs33957861 (P value = 0.003, odds ratio (OR) = 0.75, confidence interval (CI) = 0.61-0.92) and rs11599176 (P value: 0.006, OR = 0.74, CI = 0.61-0.90). Expression of SIRT1 mRNA was measured in BMI-discordant siblings from 154 Swedish families. Transcript expression was significantly correlated to BMI in the lean siblings (r(2) = 0.13, P value = 3.36 × 10(-7)) and lower SIRT1 expression was associated with obesity (P value = 1.56 × 10(-35)). There was also an association between four SNPs (rs11599176, rs12413112, rs33957861, and rs35689145) and BMI (P values: 4 × 10(-4), 6 × 10(-4), 4 × 10(-4), and 2 × 10(-3)) with the rare allele associated with a lower BMI. However, no SNP was associated with SIRT1 transcript expression level. In summary, both SNPs and SIRT1 gene expression are associated with severe obesity.

Objective: To use a unique obesity-discordant sib-pair study design to combine differential expression analysis, expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) mapping and a coexpression regulatory network approach in subcutaneous human adipose tissue to identify genes relevant to the obese state., Study Design: Genome-wide transcript expression in subcutaneous human adipose tissue was measured using Affymetrix U133 Plus 2.0 microarrays (Affymetrix, Santa Clara, CA, USA), and genome-wide genotyping data was obtained using an Applied Biosystems (Applied Biosystems; Life Technologies, Carlsbad, CA, USA) SNPlex linkage panel., Subjects: A total of 154 Swedish families ascertained through an obese proband (body mass index (BMI) >30 kg m(-2)) with a discordant sibling (BMI>10 kg m(-2) less than proband)., Results: Approximately one-third of the transcripts were differentially expressed between lean and obese siblings. The cellular adhesion molecules (CAMs) KEGG grouping contained the largest number of differentially expressed genes under cis-acting genetic control. By using a novel approach to contrast CAMs coexpression networks between lean and obese siblings, a subset of differentially regulated genes was identified, with the previously GWAS obesity-associated neuronal growth regulator 1 (NEGR1) as a central hub. Independent analysis using mouse data demonstrated that this finding of NEGR1 is conserved across species., Conclusion: Our data suggest that in addition to its reported role in the brain, NEGR1 is also expressed in subcutaneous adipose tissue and acts as a central 'hub' in an obesity-related transcript network.