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Kongress Medizin und Gesellschaft 2007

17. bis 21.09.2007, Augsburg

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Evidence for an association between genetic variants of the FADS1 FADS2 gene cluster and the fatty acid composition of red blood cell membranes

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  • Peter Rzehak - GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, Institute of Epidemiology, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany and Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Institute of Medical Data Management, Biometrics and Epidemiology, Munich, Germany, Neuherberg
  • Joachim Heinrich - GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, Institute of Epidemiology, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany, Neuherberg
  • Norman Klopp - GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, Institute of Epidemiology, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany, Neuherberg
  • Linda Schaeffer - GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, Institute of Epidemiology, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany, Neuherberg
  • Sebastian Hoff - Human Nutrition and Cancer Prevention, Technical University of Munich, 85350 Freising, Germany
  • Günther Wolfram - Department of Food and Nutrition, Technical University of Munich, 85350 Freising, Germany
  • Thomas Illig - GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, Institute of Epidemiology, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany
  • Jakob Linseisen - Human Nutrition and Cancer Prevention, Technical University of Munich, 85350 Freising, Germany and German Cancer Research Centre, Division of Cancer Epidemiology, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany

Kongress Medizin und Gesellschaft 2007. Augsburg, 17.-21.09.2007. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2007. Doc07gmds338

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/gmds2007/07gmds338.shtml

Published: September 6, 2007

© 2007 Rzehak et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Objective: This study gives further evidence to the recently found association between variants of the FADS1 FADS2 gene cluster and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in blood phospholipids (PL) and explores such associations for cellular fatty acids, i.e. in red blood cell membranes (RBC).

Methods: In a subgroup of adults participating in the Bavarian Nutrition Survey II, a cross-sectional population based study conducted in Bavaria, Germany, allelic variation in three selected loci of the FADS1 FADS2 gene cluster were analyzed and used for haplotype construction. Their associations with plasma phospholipid PUFA (n=163) and PUFA in RBC membranes (n=535) were analyzed by regression analysis.

Results: All haplotypes of the original 5-loci haplotypes of our previous study could be replicated. In addition, their associations with serum phospholipid PUFA were confirmed in the present data set. Although less pronounced, associations between FADS1 FADS2 haplotypes and PUFA in RBC membranes, particularly arachidonic and dihomo-γ-linolenic acid, could be established.

Conclusion: We provide the first replication of the association of the FADS1 FADS2 gene cluster with PUFA in blood phospholipids. For the first time, such associations were also shown for PUFA in cell membranes. This finding may have implications for the risk of diseases where eicosanoids are discussed as etiologic factors.