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Reply to AP Polednak

Genetic Epidemiology Unit, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, 825 NE 13th Street, Oklahoma City, OK 73104

Dear Sir:

We appreciate Polednak’s thoughts regarding our report (1). However, we believe that he has put the cart before the horse. We reported an association between variation in exon 5 of the uncoupling protein (UCP) gene UCP3 and variation in resting energy expenditure (REE) that may explain the persistent racial differences seen in REE after adjustment for variation in body mass. Our main outcome variable of interest was REE, not body mass and not obesity. Indeed, the title of our report, "Racial differences in the relation between uncoupling protein genes and resting energy expenditure," makes this perfectly clear. Our results for fat mass, a secondary outcome, were nonsignificant as stated in the original report and, as Polednak points out, ambivalent toward a clear genetic effect. No doubt, the question of how variation in UCP3 affects variation in obesity per se will be more difficult to determine because of the environmental influences noted by Polednak.

Therefore, our concern is that Polednak’s opening statement misrepresents the intent of our original report. The "tantalizing suggestion" was simply that—a suggestion, as part of our discussion of what our results might imply. Regarding "the absence (in the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988–1994) of black-white differences in the age-adjusted prevalence of... obesity among men," there is a clear difference in fat patterning between men and women, so a result in women should not be expected to be replicated in men.

REFERENCE

1. Kimm SYS, Glynn NW, Aston CE, et al. Racial differences in the relation between uncoupling protein genes and resting energy expenditure. Am J Clin Nutr 2002;75:714–9.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

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