Clinical Medicine Insights: Pediatrics

Ann Chen Wu^1,2, Matthew W. Gillman^1,3, Elsie M. Taveras^1,2 and Augusto A. Litonjua^4-6

¹Center for Child Health Care Studies, Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. ²Division of General Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. ³Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Massachusetts, U.S.A. ⁴Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital. ⁵Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. ⁶Center for Genomic Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Abstract

Researchers have described the association of a common DNA polymorphism, rs7566605, near INSIG2 (insulin-induced gene 2) with obesity in multiple independent populations that include subjects ages 11–60 years.1  To our knowledge, no studies have examined the association of this polymorphism with weight status during early childhood. We explored the association of the rs7566605 polymorphism with weight-for-length among 319 children at 6 months and 3 years participating in Project Viva, a pre-birth cohort study. In contrast to studies of older individuals, CC homozygosity was associated with lower gain in weight-for-length z-score between birth and age 6 months than GG homozygosity or GC heterozygosity. At age 3, we did not find an association. The association of INSIG2 gene with obesity may change direction with age.