Abstract
The fat mass and obesity-related gene (FTO) is expressed in all body tissues regulating energy homeostasis, eating behavior, and appetite. More recently, studies have shown that FTO is associated with several eating disorders such as binge eating disorder (BED), bulimia nervosa, and anorexia nervosa, as well as several subclinical manifestations of disordered eating. Indeed, adults and adolescents with FTO alleles (e.g., rs993909, rs1558902, rs1421085) exhibited higher scores in BED scales and number of binge episodes and higher scores in emotional eating scales as well as the number of emotional eating episodes. Children and adolescents with FTO alleles reported higher scores in food enjoyment and food responsiveness compared to control groups. The results are supported by the neurological studies that showed higher activation in brain areas responsible for rewarding and motivation to eat in carriers of the FTO alleles. Taken together, the studies indicated a significant association between FTO variants and BED and eating behaviors/pathologies, which suggest that these genotypes likely contribute to the onset and/or maintenance of eating disorders.
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Abbreviations
- AN:
-
Anorexia nervosa
- BED:
-
Binge eating disorder
- BMI:
-
Body mass index
- BN:
-
Bulimia nervosa
- DSM-5:
-
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition
- FTO:
-
Fat mass and obesity-related gene
- TFEQ:
-
Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire
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Jaeger Hintze, L., Doucet, É., Goldfield, G.S. (2022). Fat Mass and Obesity-Related Gene (FTO) and Binge Eating Disorder in Adults and Adolescents. In: Patel, V., Preedy, V. (eds) Eating Disorders. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67929-3_61-1
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