Objectives: Studies of adults and children with celiac disease have reported an increased risk of overweight during gluten-free diet (GFD). The fat mass and obesity-associated gene (FTO) variant rs9939609 has been associated with increased risk of developing obesity in children and adults.
Methods: In our study, we analyzed the effect of this variant on weight gain in a cohort of 280 children with celiac disease on GFD.
Results: We found that after a mean follow-up time of 3.0 years on GFD, FTO polymorphism influenced significantly the mean change in body mass index z score (P = 0.01).
Conclusions: We conclude that the FTO gene contributes to determine weight changes in children with celiac disease on GFD.