Associations of gene expression in blood with BMI and weight changes among women in the Norwegian Women and Cancer postgenome cohort
Permanent link
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/30706Date
2023-08-07Type
Journal articleTidsskriftartikkel
Peer reviewed
Author
Baiju, Nikita; Rylander, Karin Charlotta Maria; Sætrom, Pål; Sandanger, Torkjel M; Nøst, Therese HaugdahlAbstract
Methods: This cross-sectional study (N = 1694) used gene expression profiles and information from three questionnaires: Q1 (baseline), Q2 (follow-up), and Q3 (blood collection). The authors performed gene-wise linear regression models to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and functional enrichment analyses to identify their biological functions.
Results: When assessing BMIQ3, the study observed 2394, 769, and 768 DEGs for the obesity-versus-normal weight, obesity-versus-overweight, and overweightversus-normal weight comparisons, respectively. Up to 169 DEGs were observed when investigating WCQ3-Q1 (mean = 7 years, range = 5.5–14 years) and WCQ3-Q2 (mean = 1 year, range = <1 month–9 years) in interaction models with BMI categories, of which 1 to 169 genes were associated with WCs and 0 to 9 were associated with interaction effects of BMI and WCs. Biological functions of BMI-associated DEGs were linked to metabolism, erythrocytes, oxidative stress, and immune processes, whereas WC-associated DEGs were linked to signal transduction.
Conclusions: Many BMI-associated but few WC-associated DEGs were identified in the blood of women in Norway. The biological functions of BMI-associated DEGs likely reflect systemic impacts of obesity, especially blood reticulocyte-erythrocyte ratio shifts.