Association of functionally significant Melanocortin-4 but not Melanocortin-3 receptor mutations with severe adult obesity in a large North American case-control study

Abstract

Functionally significant heterozygous mutations in the Melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) have been implicated in 2.5% of early onset obesity cases in European cohorts. The role of mutations in this gene in severely obese adults, particularly in smaller North American patient cohorts, has been less convincing. More recently, it has been proposed that mutations in a phylogenetically and physiologically related receptor, the Melanocortin-3 receptor (MC3R), could also be a cause of severe human obesity. The objectives of this study were to determine if mutations impairing the function of MC4R or MC3R were associated with severe obesity in North American adults. We studied MC4R and MC3R mutations detected in a total of 1821 adults (889 severely obese and 932 lean controls) from two cohorts. We systematically and comparatively evaluated the functional consequences of all mutations found in both MC4R and MC3R. The total prevalence of rare MC4R variants in severely obese North American adults was 2.25% (CI(95%): 1.44-3.47) compared with 0.64% (CI(95%): 0.26-1.43) in lean controls (P < 0.005). After classification of functional consequence, the prevalence of MC4R mutations with functional alterations was significantly greater when compared with controls (P < 0.005). In contrast, the prevalence of rare MC3R variants was not significantly increased in severely obese adults [0.67% (CI(95%): 0.27-1.50) versus 0.32% (CI(95%): 0.06-0.99)] (P = 0.332). Our results confirm that mutations in MC4R are a significant cause of severe obesity, extending this finding to North American adults. However, our data suggest that MC3R mutations are not associated with severe obesity in this population.

Figure 1.

Functional analysis of mutant MC4Rs. α-MSH dose–response curves of mutants identified in (A) lean controls of Cohort I (n = 554), (B) severely obese cases of Cohort I (n = 510), (C) lean controls of Cohort II (n = 378) and (D) severely obese cases of Cohort II (n = 379). Data points represent mean ± SEM of at least three experiments performed in triplicate. Mean (CI_95%) of the EC₅₀ (nm) is indicated for each variant, when the variant response reached a maximum. For comparison purposes, the activities range from basal activity (0%) to the maximal activity (100%) of each receptor.

Figure 2.

Prevalence of rare MC4R (A) and MC3R (B) mutation carriers in severely obese and lean subjects. Prevalence of carriers is determined by combining both Cohort I and Cohort II (a total of 889 cases and 932 controls). The prevalence of total rare mutation case carriers was compared with control carriers. These mutations were then grouped according to results of the functional studies. Comparison of carriers between cases and controls were made using two-tailed Fisher's exact test. **P < 0.005; NS, not significant.

Figure 3.

Functional analysis of mutant MC3Rs. α-MSH dose–response curves of mutants identified in (A) lean controls of Cohorts I and II (n = 932) and (B) severely obese cases of Cohorts I and II (n = 889). Data points represent mean ± SEM of at least three experiments performed in triplicate. Mean (CI_95%) of the EC₅₀ (nm) is indicated for each variant, when the variant response reached a maximum. For comparison purposes, the activities range from basal activity (0%) to the maximal activity (100%) of each receptor.