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Bivariate linkage confirms genetic contribution to fetal origins of childhood growth and cardiovascular disease risk in Hispanic children

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Abstract

Birth weight has been shown to be associated with obesity and metabolic diseases in adulthood, however, the genetic contribution is still controversial. The objective of this analysis is to explore the genetic contribution to the relationship between birth weight and later risk for obesity and metabolic diseases in Hispanic children. Subjects were 1,030 Hispanic children in the Viva La Familia Study. Phenotypes included body size, body composition, blood pressure, fasting glucose, insulin, lipids, and liver enzymes. Birth weights were obtained from Texas birth certificates. Quantitative genetic analyses were conducted using SOLAR software. Birth weight was highly heritable, as were all other phenotypes. Phenotypically, birth weight was positively correlated to childhood body size parameters. Decomposition of these phenotypic correlations into genetic and environmental components revealed significant genetic correlations, ranging from 0.30 to 0.59. Negative genetic correlations were seen between birth weight and lipids. The genome scan of birth weight mapped to a region near marker D10S537 (LOD = 2.6). The bivariate genome-wide scan of birth weight and childhood weight or total cholesterol, improved the LOD score to 3.09 and 2.85, respectively. Chromosome 10q22 harbors genes influencing both birth weight and childhood body size and cardiovascular disease risk in Hispanic children.

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Acknowledgments

Thank the families who participated in this study, and acknowledge the contributions of Mercedes Alejandro and Marilyn Navarrete for study coordination, and Sopar Seributra for nursing and Theresa Wilson, Tina Ziba, Maurice Puyau, Firoz Vohra, Anne Adolph, Roman Shypailo, JoAnn Pratt, and Maryse Laurent for technical assistance. This work is a publication of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)/Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, TX, USA. This project was funded with federal funds from the NIH R01 DK59264 and from USDA/ARS under Cooperative Agreement 58-6250-51000-037.

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Correspondence to Guowen Cai.

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Cai, G., Cole, S.A., Haack, K. et al. Bivariate linkage confirms genetic contribution to fetal origins of childhood growth and cardiovascular disease risk in Hispanic children. Hum Genet 121, 737–744 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-007-0366-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-007-0366-7

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