Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for body fat distribution in 694 649 individuals of European ancestry.
Pagination
166 - 174
Publisher
DOI
10.1093/hmg/ddy327
Journal
Hum Mol Genet
ISSN
0964-6906
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
More than one in three adults worldwide is either overweight or obese. Epidemiological studies indicate that the location
and distribution of excess fat, rather than general adiposity, are more informative for predicting risk of obesity sequelae,
including cardiometabolic disease and cancer. We performed a genome-wide association study meta-analysis of body fat
distribution, measured by waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) adjusted for body mass index (WHRadjBMI), and identified 463 signals in
346 loci. Heritability and variant effects were generally stronger in women than men, and we found approximately one-third
of all signals to be sexually dimorphic. The 5% of individuals carrying the most WHRadjBMI-increasing alleles were
1.62 times more likely than the bottom 5% to have a WHR above the thresholds used for metabolic syndrome. These data,
made publicly available, will inform the biology of body fat distribution and its relationship with disease.
Authors
Pulit, SL; Stoneman, C; Morris, AP; Wood, AR; Glastonbury, CA; Tyrrell, J; Yengo, L; Ferreira, T; Marouli, E; Ji, YCollections
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