Genome-wide association analysis of metabolic syndrome quantitative traits in the GENNID multiethnic family study.

Background: To identify genetic associations of quantitative metabolic syndrome (MetS) traits and characterize heterogeneity across ethnic groups.

Methods: Data was collected from GENetics of Noninsulin dependent Diabetes Mellitus (GENNID), a multiethnic resource of Type 2 diabetic families and included 1520 subjects in 259 African-American, European-American, Japanese-Americans, and Mexican-American families. We focused on eight MetS traits: weight, waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, high-density lipoprotein, triglycerides, fasting glucose, and insulin.