Complex relationship between Amerindian ancestry and obesity in the Mexican population.

Abstract

The high prevalence of obesity in Mexican-American populations in the United States has suggested that the different genetic composition of the Mexican population may be related to the high prevalence of obesity in Mexico. Recently, the genome of 140,000 individuals in the Mexico City Prospective Study (MCPS) cohort was explored, and it was found that the average Amerindian ancestry (AMR) was 66.2%, followed by European (29.2%), African (3.7%), and Asian (0.8%) ancestries. However, the proportions of ancestry vary by geographic region of the country, with an increasing gradient of AMR from north to south. Despite the importance of this relationship, there are few studies that have analyzed the relationship between obesity and AMR, and the results are controversial. The relationship between AMR and central obesity has been more consistent, especially in women. Few genetic variants associated with obesity have been found in Mexico, due to the small number of individuals analyzed. Future analysis of the MCPS cohort will likely clarify the relationship between AMR and obesity, and identify genetic variations and genes associated with obesity and other metabolic diseases, specific to the Amerindian genome.