Aims: Associations between a 45 bp 3'untranslated insertion polymorphism in the uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) gene and both body mass index (BMI) and sleeping metabolic rate have previously been reported. We investigated the impact of this polymorphism on BMI and long-term body weight changes.
Methods: The allelic frequency of the UCP2 insertion variant was determined in a cohort of 744 obese Danish Caucasian men who had a BMI of at least 31 kg/m2 at the draft-board examinations and a randomly selected control cohort consisting of 872 draftees. Follow-up measurements of BMI were done on average 26 years after the draft-board examinations.
Results: The prevalence of the insertion allele was 30.4% (95% confidence interval: 28.0-32.8%) among the obese and 29.6% (27.4-31.8%) in the control group (p = 0.6). In a lean group selected as the 354 subjects with a BMI less than 25 kg/m2 at 46 years of age from the control group, the frequency of insertion allele was 29.0% (27.2-30.8%) (p = 0.5 compared with the obese cohort). The BMI at the ages of 20 and 46 years did not differ between genotypes either in the obese or the control group. Similarly, the changes in BMI/year between examinations at 20 and 46 years of age did not differ between genotypes in either group.
Conclusion/interpretation: In a large group of Danish Caucasian men we found no association between a 3'untranslated insertion polymorphism in the UCP2 gene and obesity. Neither did we identify a relation between this variant and BMI changes during adult age.