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- Walters, R G, et al.
(author)
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A new highly penetrant form of obesity due to deletions on chromosome 16p11.2.
- 2010
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In: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1476-4687 .- 0028-0836. ; 463:7281, s. 671-5
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Obesity has become a major worldwide challenge to public health, owing to an interaction between the Western 'obesogenic' environment and a strong genetic contribution. Recent extensive genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified numerous single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with obesity, but these loci together account for only a small fraction of the known heritable component. Thus, the 'common disease, common variant' hypothesis is increasingly coming under challenge. Here we report a highly penetrant form of obesity, initially observed in 31 subjects who were heterozygous for deletions of at least 593 kilobases at 16p11.2 and whose ascertainment included cognitive deficits. Nineteen similar deletions were identified from GWAS data in 16,053 individuals from eight European cohorts. These deletions were absent from healthy non-obese controls and accounted for 0.7% of our morbid obesity cases (body mass index (BMI) >or= 40 kg m(-2) or BMI standard deviation score >or= 4; P = 6.4 x 10(-8), odds ratio 43.0), demonstrating the potential importance in common disease of rare variants with strong effects. This highlights a promising strategy for identifying missing heritability in obesity and other complex traits: cohorts with extreme phenotypes are likely to be enriched for rare variants, thereby improving power for their discovery. Subsequent analysis of the loci so identified may well reveal additional rare variants that further contribute to the missing heritability, as recently reported for SIM1 (ref. 3). The most productive approach may therefore be to combine the 'power of the extreme' in small, well-phenotyped cohorts, with targeted follow-up in case-control and population cohorts.
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- Dixen, Karen, et al.
(author)
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ERR gamma Enhances UCP1 Expression and Fatty Acid Oxidation in Brown Adipocytes
- 2013
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In: Obesity. - : Wiley. - 1930-7381 .- 1930-739X. ; 21:3, s. 516-524
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Objective: Estrogen-related receptors (ERRs) are important regulators of energy metabolism. Here we investigated the hypothesis that ERR gamma impacts on differentiation and function of brown adipocytes. Design and Methods: We characterize the expression of ERR gamma in adipose tissues and cell models and investigate the effects of modulating ERR? activity on UCP1 gene expression and metabolic features of brown and white adipocytes. Results: ERR gamma was preferentially expressed in brown compared to white fat depots, and ERR gamma was induced during cold-induced browning of subcutaneous white adipose tissue and brown adipogenesis. Overexpression of ERR gamma positively regulated uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) expression levels during brown adipogenesis. This ERR gamma-induced augmentation of UCP1 expression was independent of the presence of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor coactivator-1 (PGC-1 alpha) but was associated with increased rates of fatty acid oxidation in adrenergically stimulated cells. ERR? did not influence mitochondrial biogenesis, and its reduced expression in white adipocytes could not explain their low expression level of UCP1. Conclusions: Through its augmenting effect on expression of UCP1, ERR gamma may physiologically be involved in increasing the potential for energy expenditure in brown adipocytes, a function that is becoming of therapeutic interest.
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- Thierry, Gaelle, et al.
(author)
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Molecular characterization of 1q44 microdeletion in 11 patients reveals three candidate genes for intellectual disability and seizures
- 2012
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In: American Journal of Medical Genetics. Part A. - : Wiley. - 1552-4825 .- 1552-4833. ; 158A:7, s. 1633-1640
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Patients with a submicroscopic deletion at 1q43q44 present with intellectual disability (ID), microcephaly, craniofacial anomalies, seizures, limb anomalies, and corpus callosum abnormalities. However, the precise relationship between most of deleted genes and the clinical features in these patients still remains unclear. We studied 11 unrelated patients with 1q44 microdeletion. We showed that the deletions occurred de novo in all patients for whom both parents' DNA was available (10/11). All patients presented with moderate to severe ID, seizures and non-specific craniofacial anomalies. By oligoarray-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) covering the 1q44 region at a high resolution, we obtained a critical deleted region containing two coding genesHNRNPU and FAM36Aand one non-coding geneNCRNA00201. All three genes were expressed in different normal human tissues, including in human brain, with highest expression levels in the cerebellum. Mutational screening of the HNRNPU and FAM36A genes in 191 patients with unexplained isolated ID did not reveal any deleterious mutations while the NCRNA00201 non-coding gene was not analyzed. Nine of the 11 patients did not present with microcephaly or corpus callosum abnormalities and carried a small deletion containing HNRNPU, FAM36A, and NCRNA00201 but not AKT3 and ZNF238, two centromeric genes. These results suggest that HNRNPU, FAM36A, and NCRNA00201 are not major genes for microcephaly and corpus callosum abnormalities but are good candidates for ID and seizures.
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- Yamamoto, T., et al.
(author)
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An emerging phenotype of Xq22 microdeletions in females with severe intellectual disability, hypotonia and behavioral abnormalities
- 2014
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In: Journal of Human Genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1434-5161 .- 1435-232X. ; 59:6, s. 300-306
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The majority of Xq22 duplications seen in patients with Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease (PMD) include proteolipid protein 1 (PLP1), the gene responsible for PMD, and neighboring genes. Some cases result from larger duplications up to 7 Mb in size. In comparison, the deletions including PLP1 seen in PMD patients are small. In this study, we present the genetic and clinical information for five female patients with deletions involving the Xq22 region, and review the correlation between the genotype and phenotype. Three of the five patients show similar large deletions (>3 Mb) ranging from Xq22.1 to Xq22.3 and all manifest severe intellectual disability, hypotonia and behavioral abnormalities. The most striking similarity among them are the behavioral problems, including poor eye contact and sleep disturbance. We propose that this represents an emerging distinctive microdeletion syndrome encompassing PLP1 in female patients. The possible candidate region responsible for such distinctive features has been narrowed down to the neighboring region for PLP1, including the interleukin 1 receptor accessory protein-like 2 (IL1RAPL2) gene and the clustered brain expressed X-linked (BEX) genes. The gene(s) responsible for severe neurological features in the patients in this study would be located in the regions proximate to PLP1; thus, males with the deletions involving the gene(s) would be lethal, and finally, the sizes of the deletions in PMD patients would be smaller than those of the duplications.
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