OBJECTIVE

An obesity risk allele at the NEGR1 locus was shown to be associated with weight regain after a lifestyle intervention in obese adults. Independent confirmation and studies in children are lacking. Therefore, we analyzed the impact of this and 11 additional obesity susceptibility loci on weight regain after a lifestyle intervention in overweight children.

DESIGN AND METHODS

We longitudinally analyzed the changes in weight status as body mass index standard deviation score (BMI-SDS) in 282 overweight children (10.6 ± 2.5 years, 47% male, BMI 27.1 ± 3.9 kg/m2) both at the end of a 1-year lifestyle intervention and at 1 year after the end of intervention. We genotyped obesity risk single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) derived from genome-wide association studies in or in proximity to the following genes: NEGR1, TNKS, SDCCAG8, FTO, MC4R, TMEM18, PTER, MTCH2, SH2B1, MAF, NPC1, and KCTD15.

RESULTS

The children reduced their BMI-SDS (-0.28 ± 0.35; p<0.001) during intervention and increased their BMI-SDS between the end of intervention and 1 year later (+0.05 ± 0.36; p=0.027). None of the SNPs including NEGR1 was related significantly to weight regain.

CONCLUSIONS

We found no evidence for effects of any of the GWAS-based obesity marker alleles on weight regain in the course of 1 year after an intervention.