In the obesity group, 10 different variants were identified, whereas in the binge-eating patients, only two individuals with bulimia nervosa were found to carry the I251L polymorphism, which did not correlate with weight, BMI, or psychopathological features.
Meta-analyses of previous published data with the current ones provided strong evidence of the protective effect of I251L toward obesity</span> (OR = 0.52, P = 3.58 10-5), together with a modest negative association between V103I and obesity (OR = 0.80, P = 0.002).
(1) A novel MC4R non-synonymous mutation (S136F) was detected in a 2.3 year old girl with extreme obesity (BMI 33.2 kg/m(2), >99th centile); (2) a previously described non-synonymous mutation (V253I) was identified in an obese mother (BMI 28.1 kg/m(2)) who did not transmit this mutation to her extremely obese son; (3) two known polymorphisms (V103I and I251L) were also identified; and (4) one obese mother was carrier of a silent variation (c.594C>T; I198).