The role of TGF-β1 869 T > C and PPAR γ2 34 C > G polymorphisms, fat mass, and anthropometric characteristics in predicting childhood obesity at birth: A cross-sectional study according the parental characteristics and newborn's risk for child obesity (the newborns obesity's risk) NOR study

This study proposed to establish a correlation between the risk score for child obesity and anthropometric, genetic, and bioimpedance characteristics in mothers and newborns, and to assess the discriminant ability for anthropometric parameters to classify over-fatness (defined by bioimpedance body fatness %) in pregnant women. We performed a cross-sectional study on 388 couples (mother and father) and their newborns admitted in a Tertiary Hospital from Romania. The measured parameters for mothers and their newborns were risk percentage for child obesity, anthropometric characteristics (mid-upper arm circumference [MUAC], tricipital skinfold thickness [TST] of mother and newborn), genetic polymorphisms (human peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ [PPARγ2] 34 C > G and transforming growth factor-beta 1 [TGF-β1] 869 T > C gene polymorphisms in both mothers and newborns), and mother's bioimpedance characteristics (fat mass [FM] %). The obesity risk score according to standard predictable Northern Finland Birth Cohort equation was in our study 4.07%. We found a monotone positive significant correlation between the newborn's risk of childhood obesity and the mother's TST (P = 0.01), as well as a tendency toward statistical significance concerning correlation with mother's MUAC (P = 0.053), without any correlations with the mothers’ bioimpedance parameters and also a positive correlation between the newborn's risk of childhood obesity and the newborn's anthropometrical characteristics like body mass index (BMI), MUAC, and TST (P < 0.001). We observed that the calculated newborn's risk percentage for child obesity was greater for the variant allele of the TGF-β1 869 T > C polymorphism and also for the wild-type C allele of the PPARγ2 34 C > G gene polymorphism. Our study indicated that the best predictors for over-fatness are BMI and MUAC (P = 0.01 < 0.02 and P = 0.019 < 0.02, respectively).