Longitudinal effects of FTO gene polymorphism on body composition, cardiorespiratory fitness, physical activity, inflammatory markers, and cardiovascular risk in children and adolescents. “The UP & DOWN study”

The role of polymorphism rs9939609 of the FTO gene has been related with fat mass and cardiovascular risk in adults, but it remains unclear in children and adolescents. Hence, the main aim of this study was to determine the FTO polymorphism effects on body composition, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), physical activity (PA), inflammatory markers, and cardiovascular risk both in cross‐sectional analysis and after two‐years of follow‐up in children and adolescents. A total of 2129 participants were included in this study. The rs9939609 polymorphism was genotyped. Body composition measurements, CRF, and moderate‐to‐vigorous PA (MVPA) were determined at baseline and after two‐year of follow‐up. Moreover, plasma leptin and adiponectin were also determined as inflammatory markers. Furthermore, an index of cardiovascular disease risk factors (CVDRF‐I) was calculated. Codominant (TT vs. TA vs. AA) and dominant (AA+AT vs. TT) models were applied for statistical analysis. The results showed a main effect of the FTO genotype on body composition measures in both first and third year ( p