Two dopaminergic genes, DRD4 and SLC6A3, are associated with body mass index in a Colombian sample of young adults

Abstract

Obesity is becoming an epidemic in Latin American countries. Genetic analyses of endophenotypes for obesity, such as body mass index (BMI), are quite useful for research. In this study, we analysed two functional polymorphisms in the dopamine receptor 4 (DRD4) and dopamine transporter (SLC6A3) genes. A sample of 232 Colombian young subjects were recruited and evaluated for BMI. Two functional polymorphisms in the DRD4 and SLC6A3 and genes were genotyped by PCR and electrophoresis. A significant association was found between BMI and the polymorphisms in DRD4 and SLC6A3 genes. DRD4 4/4 genotype was associated with a lower mean BMI and SLC6A3 10/10 genotype was associated with a higher mean BMI. Our work provides additional novel findings about the association of dopaminergic genes with BMI in healthy young adults. In addition, our study is one the first analyses of candidate genes for BMI in Latin American samples.

Keywords:

• Molecular genetics
• candidate genes
• obesity
• Latin America
• dopaminergic genes

Disclosure statement

The authors report no declarations of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by research grants from Universidad Antonio Nariño (VCTI-UAN, projects 20131079, 2016219 and 2016220). Y. G.-G. was supported by a fellowship from VCTI-UAN (Young Scientists Program) and is currently supported by a PhD fellowship from Centro de Estudios Interdisciplinarios Básicos y Aplicados (CEIBA; Rodolfo Llinás Program).