D.C. Croteau-Chonka, L.A. Lange, N.R. Lee, L.S. Adair, K.L. Mohlke
Background: Age of menarche, or the timing of first menses in girls, is a physiological trait that shows substantial genetic heritability. Earlier age of menarche is associated with increased childhood adiposity and with adult risk of obesity and cardiovascular disease. Objectives: We sought to further characterize the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs7759938 from the menarche locus LIN28B in 827 young Filipino women from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey (CLHNS). Methods: We tested rs7759938 for additive association with age of menarche and also tested whether childhood adiposity, as measured by body mass index (BMI) at age 8, mediated this relationship. Results: We observed nominal association of rs7759938 with age of menarche (b = -0.118 years, 95% confidence interval = (-0.216, -0.020), P = 0.019) with an effect direction consistent with the previous report. We also observed suggestive evidence that the effect of the SNP on age of menarche was independent of childhood BMI. Conclusions: These data confirm the strongest gene reported in Europeans (LIN28B) as a contributor to age of menarche in an Asian population. © 2012 The Authors.
Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7264, 120 Mason Farm Road, United States; USC-Office of Population Studies Foundation Inc., University of San Carlos, Cebu City, Philippines; Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
