Population Research Unit, Department of Sociology, National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland.
Obes Facts. 2009;2(3):196-202. doi: 10.1159/000219675. Epub 2009 Jun 3.
The persistence of obesity from early childhood to late middle age is well known. We reviewed the results from existing genetic studies on tracking of BMI to discover how much genetic and environmental factors contribute to this tracking of obesity. In total, we found 5 genetic longitudinal studies on childhood obesity and 8 on obesity in adulthood. One was an adoption study, 3 were family studies, and 9 were twin studies. All were based on Caucasian populations, and one included genetic level information (the FTO gene). Strong genetic continuity in BMI was found from early childhood to onset of adulthood. Although new genetic factors started to affect BMI during the growth period, genetic correlations remained high. Evidence of the effect of common environment on the tracking of BMI during childhood was also found. The heritability estimates reported in twin studies ranged from 0.57 to 0.86 for the trend of BMI from early adulthood to late middle age. The three family studies gave lower estimates. Important unresolved questions are the genetics of BMI change in old age, the genetics of body composition change, the genetic architecture of tracking of obesity in ethnic groups other than Caucasians, and the interplay between genes and environment underlying the development and tracking of obesity.
从儿童早期到中年后期肥胖持续存在是众所周知的。我们回顾了现有的关于 BMI 追踪的遗传研究结果，以发现遗传和环境因素在多大程度上促成了肥胖的这种追踪。我们总共找到了 5 项关于儿童肥胖的遗传纵向研究和 8 项关于成年人肥胖的研究。其中一项是收养研究，三项是家庭研究，九项是双胞胎研究。所有研究都基于白种人群，其中一项包括遗传水平信息（FTO 基因）。从儿童早期到成年早期，BMI 存在很强的遗传连续性。尽管在生长期间，新的遗传因素开始影响 BMI，但遗传相关性仍然很高。在儿童时期，共同环境对 BMI 追踪的影响也有证据。双胞胎研究报告的 BMI 从成年早期到中年后期的趋势的遗传力估计值在 0.57 到 0.86 之间。三项家庭研究给出了较低的估计值。尚未解决的重要问题是老年 BMI 变化的遗传学、身体成分变化的遗传学、白种人以外种族群体肥胖追踪的遗传结构，以及肥胖发展和追踪的基因和环境相互作用。
