Novel loci for childhood body mass index and shared heritability with adult cardiometabolic traits

Abstract

The genetic background of childhood body mass index (BMI), and the extent to which the well-known associations of childhood BMI with adult diseases are explained by shared genetic factors, are largely unknown. We performed a genome-wide association study meta-analysis of BMI in 61,111 children aged between 2 and 10 years. Twenty-five independent loci reached genome-wide significance in the combined discovery and replication analyses. Two of these, located near NEDD4L and SLC45A3, have not previously been reported in relation to either childhood or adult BMI. Positive genetic correlations of childhood BMI with birth weight and adult BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, diastolic blood pressure and type 2 diabetes were detected (Rg ranging from 0.11 to 0.76, P-values <0.002). A negative genetic correlation of childhood BMI with age at menarche was observed. Our results suggest that the biological processes underlying childhood BMI largely, but not completely, overlap with those underlying adult BMI. The well-known observational associations of BMI in childhood with cardio-metabolic diseases in adulthood may reflect partial genetic overlap, but in light of previous evidence, it is also likely that they are explained through phenotypic continuity of BMI from childhood into adulthood.

SFAG is supported by the Daniel B. Burke Chair for Diabetes Research and NIH Grant R01 HD058886. NVT is funded by a pre-doctoral grant from the Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (2017 FI_B 00636), Generalitat de Catalunya – Fons Social Europeu. BK received personal funding from the European Research Council Advanced Grant META-GROWTH (ERC-2012-AdG – no. 322605). BF was supported by an Oak Foundation Fellowship. RMF and RNB are supported by Sir Henry Dale Fellowship (Wellcome Trust and Royal Society grant: WT104150). ATH is supported by a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator award (grant number 098395/Z/12/Z). DM is supported by a Canada Research Chair. DLC was supported by the American Diabetes Association Grant 1-17-PDF-077. JTL was supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation. DIB received a KNAW Academy Professor Award (PAH/6635). MH received PhD scholarship funding from TARGET (http://target.ku.dk), The Danish Diabetes Academy (http://danishdiabetesacademy.dk) and the Copenhagen Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences. VWVJ received funding from the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (VIDI 016.136.361) and the European Research Council (ERC-2014-CoG-648916). ISF was supported by the European Research Council, Wellcome Trust (098497/Z/12/Z), Medical Research Council (MRC_MC_UU_12012/5), the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, the Botnar Foundation, the Bernard Wolfe Health Neuroscience Endowment and the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) project Beta-JUDO n°279153.