The Role of Genetic Variants in the Long Non-Coding RNA Genes and in the Pathogenesis of Childhood Obesity.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in the maintenance of metabolic homeostasis. Recently, many studies have suggested that lncRNAs, such as Metastasis Associated Lung Adenocarcinoma Transcript 1 (MALAT1) and Imprinted Maternally Expressed Transcript (H19), might participate in the pathogenesis of metabolic disorders such as obesity. We conducted a case-control study with 150 Russian children and adolescents aged between 5 and 17 years old in order to assess the statistical association between the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs3200401 in and rs217727 in , and the risk of developing obesity in this population. We further explored the possible association of rs3200401 and rs217727 with BMI Z-score and insulin resistance. The rs3200401 and rs217727 SNPs were genotyped using Taqman SNP genotyping assay. The rs3200401 SNP was identified as a risk factor for childhood obesity ( 0.05) under the dominant and allelic models, and the CT heterozygous genotype was associated with the risk of increased BMI and with insulin resistance. The rs217727 SNP had no significant association with obesity risk (all 0.05). Our findings thus suggest that SNP rs3200401 is a potential indicator of obesity susceptibility and pathogenesis in children and adolescents.