Association of K121Q Polymorphism in ENPP1 (PC-1) with BMI in Caucasian and African-American Adults

Objective: To test for association of the ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase 1 (ENPP1) K121Q polymorphism with body mass index (BMI) and diabetes in a large sample of Caucasians and African-Americans by selectively genotyping individuals at the extremes of the phenotypic distribution.

Subjects: Subsets comprising the extremes of the BMI distribution (10th-20th and above the 90th BMI percentile for Caucasians and between the 10th-30th and above the 80th percentile for African-Americans) from a group of 10,260 Caucasian and 2268 African-American adults participating in New York Cancer Project were studied.

Methods: Subjects were genotyped for the ENPP1 K121Q polymorphism by pyrosequencing and tested for association with BMI and diabetes by regression analysis.

Results: Regression analysis with BMI as the dependent variable demonstrated a significant association (P = 0.02) of genotype at K121Q with BMI, with no significant race-by-genotype interaction (P = 0.30). Compared with Q/Q or Q/K individuals, the K/K individuals had a BMI approximately 1.3 kg/m2 higher, without effects of age, gender or race. By logistic regression analysis, the K121Q alleles had no significant effect on diabetes status (P = 0.37) in obese subjects.

Conclusion: In both Caucasians and African-Americans, the K121 polymorphism in ENPP1 was associated with increased BMI, but not with diabetes.