Dairy intake associates with the IGF rs680 polymorphism to height variation in periadolescent children

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Height is a classic polygenic trait, with a number of genes underlying its variation. We evaluated the prospect of gene-to-diet interactions in a children's cohort, for the insulin-like growth factor II (IGF) rs680 polymorphism and height variation. Subjects/Methods: We screened 795 periadolescent children (424 girls) aged 10-11 years old from the Gene and Diet Attica Investigation (GENDAI) pediatric cohort for the IGF rs680 polymorphism (rs680). Results: Children homozygous for the common allele (GG) were taller (148.9 ± 7.9 cm) compared with those with the A allele (148.1 ± 7.9 cm), after adjusting for age, sex and dairy intake (Β±s.e.: 2.1±0.95, P=0.026). A trend for rs680 × dairy intake interaction was also revealed (P=0.09). Stratification by IGF rs680 genotype revealed positive significant (P=0.014) association between dairy product intake and height in A-allele children adjusted for the same confounders. A daily increase of four dairy servings was associated with a 0.4 cm increase in height. On grouping dairy intake into low (1.9±0.7 servings per day) and high dairy product consumption (4.4±1.5 servings per day), children with the A allele who were high dairy product consumers were taller compared with the low dairy product consumers (148.8±7.9 vs 147.4±7.7 cm, respectively, P=0.05). Conclusions: A higher consumption of dairy products is associated with increased height depending on the rs680 IGF2 genotype. © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Limited All rights reserved.