Genome-Wide Study of Subcutaneous and Visceral Adipose Tissue Reveals Novel Sex-Specific Adiposity Loci in Mexican Americans.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the genetic mechanisms of regional fat deposition, which is a strong risk factor for metabolic diseases beyond total adiposity.

Methods: A genome-wide association study of 7,757,139 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 983 Mexican Americans (n  = 403; n  = 580) from the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Family Study was performed. Association analyses were performed with and without sex stratification for subcutaneous adipose tissue, visceral adipose tissue (VAT), and visceral-subcutaneous ratio (VSR) obtained from computed tomography.

Results: The strongest signal identified was SNP rs2185405 (minor allele frequencies [MAF] = 40%; P = 1.98 × 10 ) with VAT. It is an intronic variant of the GLIS family zinc finger 3 gene (GLIS3). In addition, SNP rs12657394 (MAF = 19%) was associated with VAT in males (P = 2.39×10 ; P = 2.5 × 10 ). It is located intronically in the serum response factor binding protein 1 gene (SRFBP1). On average, male carriers of the variant had 24.6 cm increased VAT compared with noncarriers. Subsequently, genome-wide SNP-sex interaction analysis was performed. SNP rs10913233 (MAF = 14%; P = 3.07 × 10 ) in PAPPA2 and rs10923724 (MAF = 38%; P = 2.89 × 10 ) upstream of TBX15 were strongly associated with the interaction effect for VSR.

Conclusions: Six loci were identified with genome-wide significant associations with fat deposition and interactive effects. These results provided genetic evidence for a differential basis of fat deposition between genders.