Abstract
Salivary and pancreatic amylases (encoded by AMY1 and AMY2 genes, respectively) are responsible for digesting starchy foods. AMY1 and AMY2 show copy number variations which affect differences in amylase amount and activity, and it is suggested that AMY1 copies are associated with adiposity. We investigated whether genetic variants determining amylase gene copies were associated with 2-year changes of adiposity among 692 overweight and obese individuals who were randomly assigned to diets varying in macronutrient contents. We found that changes in body weight (BW) and waist circumference (WC) were significantly different according to the AMY1-AMY2 rs11185098 genotype. Individuals carrying the A allele (indicating higher amylase amount and activity) showed greater reduction of BW and WC at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months than those without the A allele (p <0.05 for all). The association was stronger for long-term changes compared to short-term changes of these outcomes. The genetic effects on these outcomes did not significantly differ across diet groups. In conclusion, the genetic variant determining starch metabolism influences the response to weight-loss dietary intervention. Overweight and obese individuals carrying the AMY1-AMY2 rs11185098 genotype which is associated with higher amylase activity may have greater loss of adiposity during low-calorie diet interventions.
- Received December 1, 2016.
- Accepted June 16, 2017.
- © 2017 by the American Diabetes Association.
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