Fish and marine fatty acids intakes, the FADS genotypes and long-term weight gain: a prospective cohort study
Yoriko Heianza,
Dianjianyi Sun,
Lu Qi,
Louis R Pasquale,
Jian-Min Yuan,
Tao Huang,
Frank B Hu,
Tiange Wang,
Janey Wiggs,
Hyon-Kyoo Choi,
Jin Fang Chai,
Xueling Sim,
Chiea Chuen Khor,
Yechiel Friedlander,
Andrew T Chan,
Gary Curhan,
Immaculata De Vivo,
Rob Martinu van Dam,
Chew Kiat Heng,
Charles Fuchs,
Woon Puay Koh
Affiliations
Yoriko Heianza
1 Epidemiology, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Dianjianyi Sun
School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing, China
Lu Qi
1 Epidemiology, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Louis R Pasquale
Ophthalmology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA
Jian-Min Yuan
Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, UPMC Hillman Cancer Centre, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Tao Huang
Immune-Onc Therapeutics, Inc, Palo Alto, California, USA
Frank B Hu
1 Department of Nutrition, Harvard University T H Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Tiange Wang
Department of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, Shanghai Institute of Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
Janey Wiggs
Department of Ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Hyon-Kyoo Choi
6 Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital—Harvard Medical School Center for Nervous System Repair, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Jin Fang Chai
7 Department of Medicine, National University Singapore Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Singapore, Singapore
Xueling Sim
Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore and National University Health System, Singapore
Chiea Chuen Khor
Division of Infectious Diseases, Genome Institute of Singapore, Singapore
Yechiel Friedlander
10 Unit of Epidemiology, Hebrew University, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico
Andrew T Chan
Division of Gastroenterology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Gary Curhan
Research, OM1 Inc, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Immaculata De Vivo
12 Department of Epidemiology, Harvard University T H Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Rob Martinu van Dam
13 Department of Epidemiology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
Chew Kiat Heng
14 Department of Paediatrics, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
Charles Fuchs
15 Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Woon Puay Koh
13 Department of Epidemiology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
Objective We tested whether genetic variants near fatty acid desaturases gene (FADS) cluster, which were recently identified to be signatures of adaptation to fish-rich and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs)-rich diet, interacted with these dietary factors on change in body mass index (BMI).Design Three FADS variants were examined for gene-diet interactions on long-term (~10 years) changes in BMI and body weight in four prospective cohort studies.Setting Population based study.Participants 11 323 women from the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS), 6833 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS) and replicated in 6254 women from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) and 5 264 Chinese from the Singapore Chinese Health Study (SCHS).Main outcomes Long-term (~10 years) changes in BMI and body weight.Results In the NHS and HPFS cohorts, food-sourced n-3 PUFAs intake showed interactions with the FADS rs174570 on changes of BMI (P for interaction=0.02 in NHS, 0.05 in HPFS and 0.007 in combined). Such interactions were replicated in two independent cohorts WHI and SCHS (P for interaction=0.04 in WHI, 0.02 in SCHS and 0.001 in combined). The genetic associations of the FADS rs174570 with changes in BMI increased across the tertiles of n-3 PUFAs in all the cohorts. Fish intake also accentuated the genetic associations of the FADS rs174570 with long-term changes in BMI (pooled P for interaction=0.006). Viewed differently, long chain n-3 PUFAs intake showed stronger association with long-term changes in BMI among the rs174570 T carriers (beta=0.79 kg/m2 per g, p=3×10−5) than the rs174570 non-T carriers (beta=0.16 kg/m2 per g, p=0.08). Similar results were observed for fish intake.Conclusions Our hypothesis-driven analyses provide replicable evidence that long chain n-3 PUFAs and fish intakes may interact with the FADS variant on long-term weight gain. Further investigation is needed to confirm our findings in other cohorts.
