Interleukin-1 Receptor Antagonist and Interleukin-4 Genes Variable Number Tandem Repeats Are Associated with Adiposity in Malaysian Subjects.

Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist () intron 2 86 bp repeat and interleukin-4 () intron 3 70 bp repeat are variable number tandem repeats (VNTRs) that have been associated with various diseases, but their role in obesity is elusive. The objective of this study was to investigate the association of and VNTRs with obesity and adiposity in 315 Malaysian subjects (128 M/187 F; 23 Malays/251 ethnic Chinese/41 ethnic Indians). The allelic distributions of and were significantly different among ethnicities, and the alleles were associated with total body fat (TBF) classes. Individuals with I/II genotype or allele II had greater risk of having higher overall adiposity, relative to those having the I/I genotype or I allele, respectively, even after controlling for ethnicity [Odds Ratio (OR) of I/II genotype = 12.21 (CI = 2.54, 58.79; = 0.002); II allele = 5.78 (CI = 1.73, 19.29; = 0.004)]. However, VNTR B2 allele was only significantly associated with overall adiposity status before adjusting for ethnicity [OR = 1.53 (CI = 1.04, 2.23; = 0.03)]. Individuals with II allele had significantly higher TBF than those with I allele (31.79 ± 2.52 23.51 ± 0.40; = 0.005). Taken together, intron 2 VNTR seems to be a genetic marker for overall adiposity status in Malaysian subjects.