Butyrylcholinesterase activity has been shown to be positively associated with weight and body mass index (BMI). The present study was carried out to search for an association between variants of the BCHE gene and weight, stature, and BMI on the basis of means and variances compared between nonusual variants and their respective usual controls. Individuals bearing the atypical mutation (N = 52) did not differ from their usual phenotype controls (N = 104) in these parameters. The BCHE*U/BCHE*K individuals (N = 222) presented a significantly higher BMI variance than their BCHE*U/BCHE*U controls (N = 222, F = 1.40, P = 0.012). This higher BMI variance does not seem to be an isolated effect of the K mutation, but appears to be the result of an interaction between the K allele and the usual allele, since no such difference in variance was detected between BCHE*K/BCHE*K individuals (N = 23) and their BCHE*U/BCHE*U (N = 23) controls. These data may suggest a relation between variability in the BCHE locus itself and BMI. Individuals with the BCHE UF phenotype (N = 45) showed a significantly higher mean stature (about 3 cm more; P = 0.02) than their controls with the usual phenotype (N = 135). A role in cell proliferation has been proposed for BCHE, and since growth depends on the number of mitoses, it is not unexpected that variants of this enzyme may influence body stature in different ways. This study reports the first data on the relation of BCHE alleles to anthropometric characters.
(c) 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.