Obesity Medicine

Genetic Obesity

Genes can directly cause obesity disorders such as Bardet-Biedl syndrome and Prader-Willi syndrome. Obesity is a complex disease resulting from the interactions of a wide variety of hereditary and environmental factors. The advancement in quantitative genetics, genomics and bioinformatics has attributed to a better understanding of the genetic and molecular basis of obesity. Clustering the cases within a family, the congruence of body weight for Monozygotic twins, and the discovery of genes associated with obesity are key points that offering interest regarding the genetic dimension of obesity. Heritability of obesity vary depending on the phenotype studied, however it tends to be higher for phenotypes linked to adipose tissue distribution (40-55%) and for weight or body fat excess (5-40%). Weight gain and adiposity increase with age, an effect also influenced by heredity. Occurrences of monogenic types of obesity are evidence that it may be caused by Genetic Mutations, as only 78 cases worldwide have been attributed to mutations of seven distinct genes.