Objective: To investigate whether the region of chromosome 11 (11q13) containing the genes UCP2 and UCP3 could be excluded for linkage with a variety of obesity-related phenotypes in humans.
Design: Exclusion mapping using a variance component approach in extended pedigrees.
Subjects: Four-hundred and fifty eight individuals (195 females, 263 males) distributed in 10 Mexican American families of probands randomly ascertained with respect to any disease state and who are participating in the San Antonio Family Heart Study. Ages range from 18 to 87 (mean age 35 y).
Measurements: Serum leptin levels, fat mass (FM), body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference.
Results: We were able to exclude the chromosomal region containing UCP2/UCP3 as having an effect on this set of obesity-related phenotypes at relative effect sizes of 10% or greater (P-values<0.05).
Conclusions: These results suggest that variation in these genes is unlikely to have a substantial effect on the expression of obesity-related phenotypes in the Mexican American population.