Abstract

OBJECTIVE— Variants in ADIPOQ have been inconsistently associated with adiponectin levels or diabetes. Using comprehensive linkage disequilibrium mapping, we genotyped single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in ADIPOQ to evaluate the association of common variants with adiponectin levels and risk of diabetes.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS— Participants in the Framingham Offspring Study (n = 2,543, 53% women) were measured for glycemic phenotypes and incident diabetes over 28 years of follow-up; adiponectin levels were quantified at exam 7. We genotyped 22 tag SNPs that captured common (minor allele frequency >0.05) variation at r² > 0.8 across ADIPOQ plus 20 kb 5′ and 10 kb 3′ of the gene. We used linear mixed effects models to test additive associations of each SNP with adiponectin levels and glycemic phenotypes. Hazard ratios (HRs) for incident diabetes were estimated using an adjusted Cox proportional hazards model.

RESULTS— Two promoter SNPs in strong linkage disequilibrium with each other (r² = 0.80) were associated with adiponectin levels (rs17300539; P_nominal [P_n] = 2.6 × 10⁻⁸; P_empiric [P_e] = 0.0005 and rs822387; P_n = 3.8 × 10⁻⁵; P_e = 0.001). A 3′-untranslated region (3′UTR) SNP (rs6773957) was associated with adiponectin levels (P_n = 4.4 × 10⁻⁴; P_e = 0.005). A nonsynonymous coding SNP (rs17366743, Y111H) was confirmed to be associated with diabetes incidence (HR 1.94 [95% CI 1.16–3.25] for the minor C allele; P_n = 0.01) and with higher mean fasting glucose over 28 years of follow-up (P_n = 0.0004; P_e = 0.004). No other significant associations were found with other adiposity and metabolic phenotypes.

CONCLUSIONS— Adiponectin levels are associated with SNPs in two different regulatory regions (5′ promoter and 3′UTR), whereas diabetes incidence and time-averaged fasting glucose are associated with a missense SNP of ADIPOQ.