Association study of the estrogen receptor I gene (ESR1) in anorexia nervosa and eating disorders: no replication found

Abstract

Objective: The female preponderance and onset around puberty in the majority of eating disorders (EDs) suggest that sex hormones, like estrogens, may be involved in the onset of these disorders. An eight-SNP haplotype at the estrogen receptor I (ESR1) gene was found to be associated with anorexia nervosa (AN) (Versini et al., Neuropsychopharmacology, 35, 1818-1825, 2010) and three SNPs from this haplotype (rs726281, rs2295193, and rs3798577) were associated with AN and/or EDs. Our objective was to replicate these findings in an independent cohort of 520 patients with an eating disorder, of whom 244 had AN (142 restricting type) from the GenED study and 2,810 random women from the Netherlands Twin Registry.

Method: The frequencies of the eight-SNP haplotype and three ESR1 SNPs were compared between patients with an eating disorder, with AN (restricting type), with bulimia nervosa (BN), and the control women.

Results: Neither the haplotype nor the three ESR1 SNPs were associated with EDs, BN, AN, or restricting type AN.

Discussion: Despite sufficient statistical power, the associations reported by Versini et al. (Neuropsychopharmacology, 35, 1818-1825, 2010) were not replicated.

Keywords: ESR1; anorexia nervosa; eating disorders; estrogen; genetic association.