Maternal inheritance of circulating irisin in humans

This study aims to fill this gap. A total of 120 families (N = 254; 121 adults and 133 children) were included in this study taken from the Riyadh Biomarkers Research Program cohort. Information gathered include anthropometrics, and glycemic, lipid and adipocytokine profiles. Irisin was measured using ELISA. Examining heritability between mother and offspring the most significant heritable traits in sons included irisin (p=1.6*10-5), systolic blood pressure (p=3.6*10-4), total cholesterol (p=3.5*10-7) and LDL-cholesterol (p=1.2*10-6). Heritable traits between mother and daughter again included irisin (p<0.002), as well as anthropometric associations such as waist (p<0.01) and hips (p<0.005) circumferences and blood pressure (p<0.002); biochemically, principal associations were noted with HDL-cholesterol (p<0.04) and (TNF-α p<0.002). HDL-cholesterol was the single most significant predictor for irisin levels in adults, explaining 17% of variance, whilst in children angiotensin II was the most significant predictor of irisin levels explaining 19% of the variance (p=0.003). Circulating irisin appears to be maternally inherited and is predicted by HDL-cholesterol in adults and angiotensin II in children, both factors influenced by energy expenditure and regulation. Taken together, these findings suggest a significant role of irisin in energy-generating processes.

Source: Clinical Science - January 8, 2014 Category: Biomedical Science Authors: N M. Al-Daghri, O S. Al-Attas, M S. Alokail, K M. Alkharfy, M Yousef, B Vinodson, O E. Amer, A M. Alnaami, S Sabico, G Tripathi, M K. Piya, P G. McTernan, G P. Chrousos Source Type: research