The Role of the FTO Gene in Reward System Activation in Obese and Healthy Subjects

Uppsala University

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Eating Behavior; Obesity

Treatments: Procedure: Blood sampling for genetic analyse; Behavioral: Stroop test; Other: fMRI

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01863212

LSF008786

Details and patient eligibility

About

In order to investigate if individuals, carrying genetic variants predisposing to obesity, respond differently to visual presented food images than non-carriers the investigators aim to screen 500 people for a common risk variant in the FTO gene. From those 500 screened 40 subjects, 20 homozygous for the risk allele and 20 homozygous for a non risk allele will be selected for the second step in the study. This part involves the fMRI technique to visualize the brain response, focus on reward system activation, when food images are visually presented in the scanner. Factors regarding eating behavior, sleep, physical exercise and relation to food are investigated in the first part of the study as well as clinical parameters such as BMI.

Enrollment: 500 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 37 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• No medications (except contraceptives including estrogen)
• No metabolic disorders/diseases
• Right handed
• Color vision
• Normal sleep-wake rhythm (eg. shift workers can not participate)

Exclusion criteria

• Specific preferences of food, for example vegetarians
• Grandparents originating from country outside the Nordic area
• Metallic implants

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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500 participants in 2 patient groups

Risk allele carriers

Experimental group

Description:

Individuals homozygous for the risk allele (A/A) The interventions administrated to this group: 'Blood sampling for genetic analyse', 'Stroop test', 'fMRI'

Treatment:

Behavioral: Stroop test

Procedure: Blood sampling for genetic analyse

Other: fMRI

Non risk allele carriers

Experimental group

Description:

Individuals homozygous for the non-risk allele (T/T) The interventions administrated to this group: 'Blood sampling for genetic analyse', 'Stroop test', 'fMRI'

Treatment:

Behavioral: Stroop test

Procedure: Blood sampling for genetic analyse

Other: fMRI