Developmental Pathways to Metabolic Diseases: Metabolic Physiology, Epigenetics and Body Composition in Healthy Overweight and Obese Subjects With a Fixed Range of Body Mass Index in Singapore - To Investigate the Influence of Ethnicity

Over the past decade, investigators in Singapore have been actively studying the impact of ethnicity on metabolic traits, particularly those related to insulin resistance (detailed in the preliminary data of this proposal. We have observed that, for the same BMI, Asian Indians appear to have greater insulin resistance than Chinese. In line with the greater insulin resistance observed in Asian Indians, it has also been noted that Asian Indians exhibit greater central obesity (manifest as a larger waist circumference). In some ways, this resembles the phenotype that might be expected if the mismatch pathway described in this proposal, were involved in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance in this ethnic group. Interestingly, Asian Indians have also been noted to have lower birth weight than Chinese in our population. In contrast, although Malays are more insulin resistant than Chinese, this is largely due to greater adiposity and, after adjustment for body mass index, Malays are actually less insulin resistant than their Chinese and Asian Indian counterparts. They also have smaller waist circumferences. It is also recognized that pregnant Malay women tend to be generally more obese than their Chinese and Asian Indian counterparts, which may put their children at great risk of fetal hyperinsulinemia. As such, the potential exists that this latter pathway is more active in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance in this ethnic group.