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. 2020 Mar 16;10(1):4806.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-61719-3.

The influence of transmitted and non-transmitted parental BMI-associated alleles on the risk of overweight in childhood

Theresia M Schnurr #  1 , Camilla S Morgen #  2   3 , Dmitrii Borisevich  2 , Robin N Beaumont  4 , Line Engelbrechtsen  2   5 , Lars Ängquist  2 , Christian T Have  2 , Rachel M Freathy  4 , George Davey Smith  6 , Ellen A Nohr  7 , Torben Hansen  2 , Thorkild I A Sørensen  2   3   6   8
Affiliations

The influence of transmitted and non-transmitted parental BMI-associated alleles on the risk of overweight in childhood

Theresia M Schnurr et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Overweight in children is strongly associated with parental body mass index (BMI) and overweight. We assessed parental transmitted and non-transmitted genetic contributions to overweight in children from the Danish National Birth Cohort by constructing genetic risk scores (GRSs) from 941 common genetic variants associated with adult BMI and estimating associations of transmitted maternal/paternal and non-transmitted maternal GRS with child overweight. Maternal and paternal BMI (standard deviation (SD) units) had a strong association with childhood overweight [Odds ratio (OR): 2.01 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.74; 2.34) and 1.64 (95% CI 1.43; 1.89)]. Maternal and paternal transmitted GRSs (SD-units) increased odds for child overweight equally [OR: 1.30 (95% CI 1.16; 1.46) and 1.30 (95% CI 1.16; 1.47)]. However, both the parental phenotypic and the GRS associations may depend on maternal BMI, being weaker among mothers with overweight. Maternal non-transmitted GRS was not associated with child overweight [OR 0.98 (95% CI 0.88; 1.10)] suggesting no specific influence of maternal adiposity as such. In conclusion, parental transmitted GRSs, based on adult BMI, contribute to child overweight, but in overweight mothers other genetic and environmental factors may play a greater role.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Participant flowchart and selection of mother-child pairs of the REF, MO-OW and CH-OW groups. CH-OW: Children with overweight and their mothers (children with overweight group); OW-MO: Mothers with overweight and their children (mothers with overweight group); REF: Randomly selected mothers and their children (reference group).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Overview of the mean (95% CI) of the various GRSs (expressed in SD-units) in each group of mother-child pairs. CH-OW: Children with overweight and their mothers (children with overweight group); GRS: Genetic risk score; OW-MO: Mothers with overweight and their children (mothers with overweight group); REF: Randomly selected mothers and their children (reference group).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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