Objective: To investigate the distribution characteristics of protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) gene IVS6+G82A and Pro303Pro polymorphisms in Chinese children and determine the effect of PTP1B gene IVS6+G82A and Pro303Pro polymorphisms on the pathogenesis of childhood obesity.
Methods: A total of 147 Chinese obese and 118 healthy children were randomly selected and enrolled to identify IVS6+G82A and Pro303Pro genotypes by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) assay. Waist circumference (WC), waist to hip ratio (WHR), percentage of body fat (%BF),systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), serum triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), plasma fasting insulin (FINS), homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), and plasma leptin were examined.
Results: The allele frequencies of IVS6+G82A and Pro303Pro were 59.5% and 19.4% in obese children, and 53.4% and 11.0% in healthy children, respectively. There were significant differences in allele frequencies of Pro303Pro polymorphism between the obese and the control group. Pro303Pro polymorphism was associated with body mass index, WC, TG, and LDL-C in the obese subjects. There was not difference in the genotype distributions or allele frequencies of IVS6+G82A polymorphism between the obese and the control group. Further analysis showed no association between the genotypes of IVS6+G82A and clinical characteristics in the obese subjects. The linkage disequilibrium analysis for IVS6+G82A and Pro303Pro (D': 0.441, r2: 0.027) was weak.
Conclusion: PTP1B gene Pro303Pro polymorphism might be associated with the pathogenesis of obesity in children and could affect the lipid metabolism in Chinese obese children.