Correlations Between Leptin Gene Polymorphisms 223 A/G, 1019 G/A, 492 G/C, 976 C/A, and Anthropometrical and Biochemical Parameters in Children With Obesity: A Prospective Case-Control Study in a Romanian Population—The Nutrichild Study

The aim of this study was to establish the manner in which the LEPR 223, 1019, 492, and 976 gene polymorphisms influence child obesity. We performed a prospective case-control study on 264 hospitalized children from Romania (Nutrichild study) whom we divided into 2 groups: Group I —143 controls and Group II—121 obese children. The 2 groups were evaluated regarding the anthropometry (MUAC, TST, H/L, hip, and abdominal circumference), paraclinical results (protein, leptin, adiponectin, TNF alfa, IL 6, IL 8, VEGF, protein, albumin) and LEPR 223, 1019, 492, and 976 gene polymorphisms. We noticed that the most frequent genotypes in obese children were AG+GG for LEPR 223 gene (P = 0.0001) and GA+AA for LEPR 1019 gene (P = 0.0001), whereas LEPR 492 and LEPR 976 gene polymorphisms did not correlate with obesity. MUAC, TST, H/L, leptin, and adiponectin were correlated with the GG genotype of the LEPR 223 gene, whereas the AG genotype correlated with TNF alpha and serum IL 8. Hip and abdominal perimeters were higher in LEPR 1019 AA genotype carriers, whereas TNF alpha and IL 6 correlated with the GG genotype of the same gene. Obesity did not correlate with protein serum levels. We observed that obesity is more frequent in children with LEPR 223 AG+GG and LEPR 1019 GA+AA genotypes. In obese children LEPR 223/492/1019 AG/GG/GA, GG/GG/GA and AA/GG/GA combined genotypes are more frequent.