Association between a polymorphism of the 5-HT2C receptor and weight loss in teenage girls.

• Receptors of the 5-HT2C subtype are assumed to be involved in the influence of serotonin on food intake. A polymorphism in the coding region of the gene for this receptor, resulting in a cysteine to serine substitution, has been reported. Fifty-seven somatically healthy teenage girls displaying weight loss and 91 normal-weight girls of the same age, all recruited by means of a population-based screening study, were compared with respect to this polymorphism. Subjects in the weight loss group displayed a higher frequency of the serine allele than those in the comparison group (23.7% vs. 7.7%, p =.0001). Seventy-two percent of the weight loss girls fulfilled the diagnostic criteria of anorexia nervosa, whereas 28% did not; when these two groups were separately analyzed, both differed significantly from controls with respect to serine allele frequency. The results support the notion that the studied gene may be involved in the regulation of food intake in young women.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Medicinska och farmaceutiska grundvetenskaper -- Farmakologi och toxikologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Basic Medicine -- Pharmacology and Toxicology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Adolescent

physiology

Chi-Square Distribution

Feeding Behavior

physiology

Female

Humans

Polymorphism

Genetic

genetics

Receptor

Serotonin

5-HT2C

Receptors

Serotonin

genetics

Weight Loss

genetics

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)