Heritability of serum leptin levels: a twin study.
- Author:
Meihua WU
1
;
Qingbo HE
;
Dingliang ZHU
;
Xing HE
;
Guliang WANG
;
Pingjing GAO
;
Huaifa ZHOU
;
Weizhong ZHANG
;
Guangsheng ZHAO
Author Information
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- MeSH: Adolescent; Adult; Body Mass Index; Female; Genotype; Humans; Leptin; blood; genetics; Male; Microsatellite Repeats; genetics; Middle Aged; Twins, Dizygotic; genetics; Twins, Monozygotic; genetics
- From: Chinese Journal of Medical Genetics 2002;19(2):112-114
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
OBJECTIVETo study the contribution of genetic factors to the variance of serum leptin concentration in healthy, normotensive twins.
METHODSA total of 57 pairs of twins were investigated: 28 female and 19 male pairs of monozygotic(MZ) twins, and 6 female and 4 male pairs of dizygotic(DZ) twins. The zygosity of twins was determined by comparing the concordance of the genotype of nine fluorescence-labeled microsatellite markers. The genetic analysis was performed using the variance-based method. Serum leptin levels were determined in duplicate by a radioimmunoassay Kit (Linco Research, Inc., St. Charles, Missouri) as previously described.
RESULTSThe test of genetic variance revealed a significantly larger within-pair variance of serum leptin in the DZ twins, in comparison with the MZ twins. The corresponding heritability for serum leptin was 8%. Adjusted for BMI, gender, and uric acid (UA), the heritability for serum leptin was 0.18%. Log leptin correlated significantly with blood pressure (SBp r=0.355 P<0.001; DBp r=0.339 P<0.001). Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis revealed that only BMI, gender and UA were linked independently to serum leptin levels(R(2)=0.788, P<0.001).
CONCLUSIONThe above data indicate that environmental factors other than genetic factors are important determinants of leptinemia in normal subjects.
