Genetic biomarkers of morbid obesity: gene expression and polymorphisms, cytogenetics alterations and their relationship with the plasmatic micronutrients

Abstract

Obesity, considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a worldwide epidemic disease, is a multifactorial disorder which involves inherited and environmental factors and life style, with not only social or psychological consequences, but also associated with the development of co-morbidities such as hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Therefore, obesity has become a challenge for the maintenance of human health. The recent advances in the Nutrigenomic field, has also reinforced the necessity to understand how micronutrients in diets can interact with the genome leading to chronic diseases and to other phenotype alterations. In this context, the present study aims to identify genetic biomarkers associated to morbid obesity and to contribute to understand the adipogenesis mechanisms. This study will include 300 women that will undergo bariatric surgery, and 300 healthy women matched by age and with BMI < 25. The end-points to be evaluated are: 1) the polymorphisms of ghrelin, leptin, their respective receptors and the serotonin receptor genes; 2) the gene expression profile by the microarray technology; 3) primary DNA damage (strand breaks, base oxidation and alkali-label sites; comet assay) and cytogenetic alterations (micronucleus assay in peripheral lymphocytes); 4) the assessment of plasmatic micronutrients levels (HPLC). We expect the results may provide important information for understanding the genetic mechanisms related to obesity and to contribute for the establishment of preventive and therapeutic strategies associated to this metabolic disorder. (AU)