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Depression and obesity are highly prevalent, and major impacts on public health frequently co-occur. Recently, we reported that having depression moderates the effect of the FTO gene, suggesting its implication in the association between depression and obesity.
To confirm these findings by investigating the FTO polymorphism rs9939609 in new cohorts, and subsequently in a meta-analysis.
The sample consists of 6902 individuals with depression and 6799 controls from three replication cohorts and two original discovery cohorts. Linear regression models were performed to test for association between rs9939609 and body mass index (BMI), and for the interaction between rs9939609 and depression status for an effect on BMI. Fixed and random effects meta-analyses were performed using METASOFT.
In the replication cohorts, we observed a significant interaction between FTO, BMI and depression with fixed effects meta-analysis (β=0.12, P = 2.7 × 10−4) and with the Han/Eskin random effects method (P = 1.4 × 10−7) but not with traditional random effects (β = 0.1, P = 0.35). When combined with the discovery cohorts, random effects meta-analysis also supports the interaction (β = 0.12, P = 0.027) being highly significant based on the Han/Eskin model (P = 6.9 × 10−8). On average, carriers of the risk allele who have depression have a 2.2% higher BMI for each risk allele, over and above the main effect of FTO.
This meta-analysis provides additional support for a significant interaction between FTO, depression and BMI, indicating that depression increases the effect of FTO on BMI. The findings provide a useful starting point in understanding the biological mechanism involved in the association between obesity and depression.
In her study on organ transplantation, medical anthropologist Linda Hogle refers to the constant context-dependent ambiguity of human biological material as ‘entities that are simultaneously precious human remains, technological artefacts, waste products, and therapeutic tools’. According to the definitions listed by the editors in the introduction, such bodily detachable human entities and fluids can be conceptualized as biologics. This essay is about a particular kind of human material: gametes (or germ cells), reproductive substances which are needed for procreation and that are differentiated into sperm and oocytes. Gametes can be termed biologics because they mostly originate from living organisms; in addition, in some cases post-mortem sperm retrieval is performed. Reproductive treatment relies on gametes as a natural resource that cannot be synthesized. Like other biologics, the regulation of gamete donation, their storage and the standardization of these processes pose several legal problems. Therefore the aim of this essay is to show why gametes are a particular kind of biologics, given that they cannot be standardized like other biologics and that their very use calls into question their ontological status. Furthermore, the ways in which they are made available from the body are quite differentiated and rooted in gender dichotomies, depending on whether sperm or oocytes are involved.
In contrast to other types of biologics like vaccines or vitamins that are designed for preventive or therapeutic use, gametes are used for reproductive treatment (as a means of substitution).
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