Association of VNTR polymorphisms in DRD4, 5-HTT and DAT1 genes with obesity

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the association between VNTR polymorphisms of DRD4, DAT1 and 5-HTT genes and obesity.

Material and methods: Peripheral blood samples of 234 obese (BMI ≥ 30) and 148 healthy individuals (BMI ≤ 25) were objected to PCR to detect the VNTR of the 2nd intron of 5-HTT, 3rd exon of DRD4 and 3'UTR of DAT1 genes.

Results: The association between obesity and genotype distributions of 5-HTT, DAT1 and DRD4 genes and between obesity and distributions of allele frequencies were tested by Chi Square (χ(2)) test and were not found statistically significant. BMI values for genotype of obese and morbidly obese (BMI > 40) individuals were analyzed by Kruskal-Wallis and not found statistically significant differences between BMI values for the most frequent genotypes of 5-HTT, DAT1 and DRD4 genes.

Conclusions: As a conclusion, there was no association between 5-HTT, DAT1 and DRD4 genes VNTR polymorphisms and obesity.

Keywords: Dopamine D4 receptor gene; dopamine transporter gene; obesity; serotonin transporter gene; variable number tandem repeat polymorphism.