Association of PRDM16 rs12409277 and CtBP2 rs1561589 gene polymorphisms with lipid profile of adolescents

Positive regulatory domain containing 16 (PRDM16) protein represents the key regulator of brown adipose tissue (BAT) development. It induces brown fat phenotype and represses white adipose tissue specific genes through the association with -terminal binding co-repressor proteins (CtBP1 and CtBP2). In healthy adults presence of BAT has been associated with lower glucose, total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. Our aim was to analyze the association of gene (rs12409277) and gene (rs1561589) polymorphisms with body mass index (BMI), fasting glucose level and lipid profile of adolescents. Our study included 295 healthy school children, 145 boys (49.2%) and 150 girls (50.8%), 15 years of age. Genotypes for the selected polymorphisms were detected by the real-time PCR method. Age, gender, height, weight, lipid profile (total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides) and fasting glucose levels were recorded. We did not find a statistically significant association of rs12409277 and rs1561589 polymorphisms with BMI, fasting glucose and lipid profile of adolescents. We further analyzed the combined effect of the two SNPs and the statistical analysis showed that carriers of CT genotype of rs12409277 polymorphism and GG genotype of rs1561589 polymorphism had significantly lower total cholesterol ( = 0.001) and LDL cholesterol ( = 0.008) levels compared to all other groups of genotypes. Our study suggests that rs12409277 and rs1561589 polymorphism might have an influence on total and LDL cholesterol levels in adolescents. Larger studies should be performed in order to confirm our results.