The effect of FTO gene variant (rs17817449) and menopause on blood pressure in hypertensive and normotensive Slovak women

Abstract

This cross-sectional study examines the effect of fat mass and obesity-associated gene polymorphism (FTO) and menopause on blood pressure in Slovak midlife women. We assessed a total of 575 women ranging in age from 39 to 65 years. Data were analyzed using the univariate analysis of covariance to test the effect of risk FTO gene variant (G allele) and menopausal status (MS) on blood pressure in the hypertensive (HT) and normotensive (NT) women groups. The FTO gene variant did not have the sole effect on SBP in both of study groups of women. A significant association was recorded between studied FTO gene variant and DBP but only in HT women group (p = 0.044). Women possessing at least one risk allele (GG or GT) had slightly higher mean values of DBP than those without this allele. In the next step, our results showed a statistically significant association between MS and the FTO genotype and their common effect on SBP in NT women group (p = 0.002). The late pre-, perimenopausal G- allele carriers had lower SBP values in comparison with TT genotype carriers (estimated marginal means, 116.9 vs. 122.9 mm/Hg), while postmenopausal G- allele carriers had higher SBP values compared to TT genotype carriers (estimated marginal means, 120.7 vs. 114.1 mm/Hg). We did not notice any significant associations between FTO, menopause and DBP. Our findings indicate that FTO rs17817449 along with menopause are significant factors associated with systolic blood pressure in Slovak normotensive women.

DOI: 10.5671/ca.47.4.4