Lack of association between certain candidate gene polymorphisms and the metabolic syndrome

The goal of the present study was to assess the association between the metabolic syndrome (MS) and certain polymorphisms in genes involved in lipid transport, insulin resistance, intramitochondrial energy transport, appetite control, vasomotor tone, and adipocyte differentiation. The sample was composed of 601 men and 594 women aged 35-64 years recruited in the north of France that were genotyped for the following polymorphisms (SNPs): uncoupling protein, UCP3 −55 C/T; fatty acid transport protein, FATP1 intron 8 +48 G/A; tumor necrosis factor, TNF-α −308 G/A; leptin, LEP 5′UTR +19 G/A; and β3 subunit of G proteins, GNB3 C825T. Waist girth, plasma triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol, glucose and systolic, and diastolic blood pressure were used to define the MS according to the National cholesterol education program (NCEP-III) guidelines. There were 155 (27.4%) men and 124 (21.8%) women who satisfied the NCEP-III criteria and 855 control subjects. By logistic regression using a dominant model (homozygous for the common allele versus carriers of the rare allele), the odds ratio [95% confidence interval] for the MS were: 0.91 [0.68-1.22] for FATP1, 0.93 [0.68-1.28] for TNF-α, 0.97 [0.73-1.29] for UCP3, 1.06 [0.80-1.40] for LEP, and 1.12 [0.84-1.48] for GNB3 SNPs. There was no evidence for a gender-specific effect. In conclusion, this study suggests that among a large sample of French men and women, the above named SNPs in UCP3, FATP1, TNF-α, LEP, and GNB3 genes are not major contributors to the MS risk.