RESUMEN
This research was designed to analyze the possible associations of Arg389Gly ADRB1 and Trp64Arg ADRB3 polymorphisms in children with obesity. A cross-sectional study included 1,046 school-age Mexican participants (6-12 years old) from the cities of San Luis PotosÍ and León. Children were classified as non-obese or obese according to their body mass index (BMI) percentile; obese children had a BMI≥95th percentile for sex and age. Biochemical data were collected. Polymorphisms were detected using TaqMan qPCR assay. A logistic regression analysis was used to calculate the risk of obesity based on genotypes. Differences were found between groups where obese children had a significant increase in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose, insulin, HOMA-IR, LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, and lower HDL-cholesterol compared with the normal weight group (P<0.05). The distribution of allele frequency in the population was Arg= 87.4 and Gly= 12.6 (Hardy Weinberg equilibrium c2 = 3.16 , P = 0.07 ); Trp= 81.5 and Arg= 18.5 (Hardy Weinberg equilibrium c2 = 2.2, P = 0.14 ) for ADRB1 and ADRB3, respectively. Even though no different frequencies of Arg389Gly polymorphism between groups were found (P = 0.08), children carriers of one Gly389 ADRB1 allele had a risk for obesity of OR=1.40 (95%CI, 1.03-1.90, P = 0.03) after adjustment for age and gender. No other association was found for Trp64Arg ADRB3 polymorphism. Only the Arg389Gly ADRB1 polymorphism was associated with risk for obesity in Mexican children.
RESUMEN
Global DNA hypomethylation potentially leading to pro-atherogenic gene expression occurs in atherosclerotic lesions. However, limited information is available on the genomic location of hypomethylated sequences. We present a microarray-based survey of the methylation status of CpG islands (CGIs) in 45 human atherosclerotic arteries and 16 controls. Data from 10,367 CGIs revealed that a subset (151 or 1.4%) of these was hypermethylated in control arteries. The vast majority (142 or 94%) of this CGI subset was found to be unmethylated or partially methylated in atherosclerotic tissue, while only 17 of the normally unmethylated CGIs were hypermethylated in the diseased tissue. The most common functional classes among annotated genes adjacent to or containing differentially methylated CGIs, were transcription (23%) and signalling factors (16%). The former included HOX members, PROX1, NOTCH1 and FOXP1, which are known to regulate key steps of atherogenesis. Expression analysis revealed differential expression of all CGI-associated genes analysed. Sequence analysis identified novel DNA motifs with regulatory potential, associated with differentially methylated CGIs. This study is the first large-scale analysis of DNA methylation in atherosclerosis. Our data suggest that aberrant DNA methylation in atherosclerosis affects the transcription of critical regulatory genes for the induction of a pro-atherogenic cellular phenotype.