Melanocortin-4 Receptor Gene Variation Is Associated with Eating Behavior in Chilean Adults

Background/Aims: To evaluate the association between allelic variants of melanocortin receptors -3 and -4 (MC3R and MC4R, respectively) and leptin receptor (LEPR) genes with body mass index (BMI) and eating behavior. Methods: We selected 344 Chilean adults (57.8% women; age 39.1 ± 6.6 years) with a wide variation in BMI (30.3 ± 6.3 kg/m2). The Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire-R18 that measures uncontrolled eating (UE), emotional eating (EE) and cognitive restraint scores was adapted, validated and assessed for association with BMI. Genotypes were determined by polymerase chain reaction followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism techniques and Taqman assays. Results: Higher EE scores were found in obese vs. non-obese in both men (p = 0.01) and women (p T (Thr150Ile) in MC4R gene with no apparent alterations in eating behavior scores. Conclusions: UE scores were higher in C-allele carriers of MC4R-rs17782313 compared to non-carriers.