Abstract
Context: Endocannabinoids control food intake via both central and peripheral mechanisms, and cannabinoid type-1 receptor (CB1) modulates lipogenesis in primary adipocyte cell cultures and in animal models of obesity. Objectives: We aimed to evaluate, at the population level, the frequency of a genetic polymorphism of CB1 and to study its correlation with body mass index. Design, setting and participants: Healthy subjects from a population survey carried out in southern Italy examined in 1992-1993 and older than 65 years (n=419, M=237, F=182) were divided into quintiles by body mass index (BMI). Two hundred and ten subjects were randomly sampled from the first, third and fifth quintile of BMI (BMI, respectively: 16.2-23.8=normal, 26.7-28.4=overweight, 31.6-49.7=obese) to reach a total of 70 per quintile. Their serum and white cells from the biological bank were used to measure the genotype and the blood variables for the study. Measurements: Anthropometric parameters, blood pressure, serum glucose and lipid levels were measured with standard methods; genotyping for the CB1 1359G/A polymorphism was performed using multiplex PCR. Statistical methods included χ 2 for trend, binomial and multinomial multiple logistic regression to model BMI on the genotype, controlling for potential confounders. Results: We found a clear trend of increasing relative frequency of the CB1 wild-type genotype with the increase of BMI (P=0.03) and, using a multiple logistic regression model, wild-type genotype, female gender, age, glycaemia and triglycerides were directly associated with both overweight (third quintile of BMI) and obesity (fifth quintile of BMI). Conclusions: Although performed in a limited number of subjects, our results show that the presence of the CB1 polymorphic allele was significantly associated with a lower BMI.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 908-912 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | International Journal of Obesity |
Volume | 31 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jun 2007 |
Keywords
- BMI
- Cannabinoid type-1 receptor
- CB1-polymorphism
- Endocannabinoids
- Glycaemia
- Lipid profile
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Medicine (miscellaneous)
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
- Endocrinology
- Food Science
- Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism