Author(s):
Ramos, Maria do Rosário 
; Carolino, Elisabete ; Oliveira, Teresa ; Silva, A. P. ; Carvalho, R. ; Bicho, M.
Date: 2009
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.2/2057
Origin: Repositório Aberto da Universidade Aberta
Subject(s): Obesity; Acid phosphatase; Haptoglobin; Ordinal regression; Odds ratio
Description
The aim of this work is to study the risk of obesity posed by two genetic factors: haptoglobin phenotype and acid phosphatase phenotype, one enzymatic activity: acid phosphatase activity (ACP1), age and gender.
Haptoglobin (Hp) is a protein of the immune system, and three phenotypes of Hp are
found in humans: Hp1-1, Hp2-1, and Hp2-2. This protein is associated with a
susceptibility to common pathological conditions, such as obesity. ACP1 is an intracellular enzyme The phenotypes of ACP1 (AA, AB, AC, BB, BC, CC) are also considered.
We took a sample of 127 subjects with complete data from 714 registers. Since we intend to identify risk factors for obesity, an ordinal regression model is adjusted, using the Body Mass Index, BMI, to define weight categories. Haptoglobin phenotype, enzymatic activity of ACP1, acid phosphatase phenotype, age and gender are considered as regressor variables.
We found three factors associated with an increased risk of obesity: phenotype Hp2-1 of haptoglobin (estimated odds ratio OR 11.54), phenotype AA of acid phosphatase (OR 33.788) and age (OR 1.39). The interaction between phenotype Hp2-1 and phenotype
AC is associated with a decreased risk of obesity (OR 0.032); The interaction between
phenotype AA and ACP1 activity is associated with a decreased risk of obesity (OR 0.954).
