Association of Vitamin D Receptor Gene Polymorphisms with Metabolic Syndrome in Chinese Children

Di Wang; Kunkai Su; Zhongxiang Ding; Zhiqun Zhang; Chunlin Wang

doi:10.2147/IJGM.S287205

Association of Vitamin D Receptor Gene Polymorphisms with Metabolic Syndrome in Chinese Children

Int J Gen Med. 2021 Jan 12:14:57-66. doi: 10.2147/IJGM.S287205. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Di Wang^{1

2}, Kunkai Su³, Zhongxiang Ding⁴, Zhiqun Zhang², Chunlin Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Pediatrics, Affiliated Hangzhou First People's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People's Republic of China.
³ State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hangzhou First People's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the association between vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphisms and vitamin D deficiency, overweightness/obesity, and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in a cohort of Han children residing in Hangzhou, China.

Patients and methods: This study assessed 106 overweight/obese and 86 healthy (control) children. Five single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the VDR gene, namely, TaqI (rs731236 T > C), ApaI (rs7975232 C > A), BsmI (rs1544410 G > A), FokI (rs2228570 G >A), and Cdx2 (rs11568820 G > A), were genotyped by sequencing the total polymerase chain reaction products. The distributions of different genotypes and alleles were compared among different groups.

Results: The serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentration was significantly lower in overweight/obese children, while the AA genotype of ApaI SNP exhibited higher frequencies in the overweight/obese group than in the control. Furthermore, children with the ApaI AA genotype showed higher levels of Glu-60min, Glu-90min, Glu-120min and triglyceride. The AA genotype of FokI SNP was significantly associated with MetS. However, no association was observed between the five VDR SNPs and the risk of vitamin D deficiency.

Conclusion: VDR ApaI polymorphisms appear to be correlated with overweightness/obesity and glucose intolerance. FokI polymorphisms may be linked to a higher susceptibility toward MetS in Chinese children.

Keywords: 25-hydroxyvitamin D; adiposity; allele frequencies; genotype; glucose intolerance.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Jin Lei Pediatric Endocrinology Growth Research Fund for Young Physicians (No. PEGRF-ZM-20171001) and the Medical Health Science and Technology Project of the Hangzhou Health Commission (No. A20200556).