Nutritional Habits of Croatian Island Populations – Recent Insights

Although Croatia is divided into continental and insular subpopulation which practice different dietary habits, a general shift in nutritional habits has been observed in the direction of globalization, including considerably higher intake of red meat, saturated fatty acids, milk, dairies etc. and accompanied by a decrease in physical activity. These relatively abrupt changes have had an especially significant impact on the insular populations, known for their traditional Mediterranean diet and have led to the increased prevalence of hypertension, metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus, coronary heart diseases etc. on Croatian islands. Since the expression of genes responsible for the occurrence of complex diseases can be enhanced in isolated populations due to the effect of evolutionary forces, genetic-epidemiological research in population isolates is of great importance, giving us insight into the interplay between intrinsic (genes) and extrinsic risk factors (diet) for disease development

Anthropometric measurements of Hvar islanders and changes in secular trend of height – evidence from the village of Gdinj

The aim of this study was to compare the data on height of Hvar islanders collected from two transversal studies (1978/1979 and during the 1994). The first field research covered a total of 935 inhabitants of the island (484 males and 451 females) aged between 20 and 72 years, from five villages of the western part (Dol, Vrbanj, Svirče, Vrisnik, Pitve) and four villages of the eastern part of the island of Hvar (Poljica, Zastražišće, Gdinj, Bogomolje). The second field research was carried out in 1994 that enrolled total of 189 participants (82 males and 107 females) from the villages Dol, Vrbanj, Svirče, Zastražišće, Gdinj and Bogomolje. Comparison of data on Hvar adults since these two periods demonstrated a secular increase in average height for females and males in all investigated villages except in the village of Gdinj. Negative secular trend in village of Gdinj was observed for both female and male inhabitants. Possible explanation for this trend could be the specific migratory patterns and traditional practice of endogamy

THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN MATERNAL ANTHROPOMETRY AND BLOOD PRESSURE IN PREGNANCY – RESULTS FROM THE CROATIAN ISLANDS’ BIRTH COHORT STUDY (CRIBS)

Elevated blood pressure (BP) in pregnancy, especially gestational hypertension and preeclampsia, can lead to serious pregnancy complications and adverse birth outcomes. A large body of literature already reported the effect of baseline body mass index (BMI) on changes in blood pressure during pregnancy. The aim of this study was therefore to define trajectory of systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure in 308 pregnant participants from the CRIBS study (146 from the mainland and 162 from the islands of Brač and Hvar) and to analyze the association of blood pressure with maternal BMI prior to pregnancy and maternal anthropometry during pregnancy. Pregnant women included in the CRIBS study had no history of chronic diseases. The BP of CRIBS participants was measured at least once in each trimester, and maternal pre-pregnancy weight was self-reported. All analyses were performed using SPSS 10.0. Results showed that pre-pregnancy BMI was the strongest predictor of pregnancy blood pressure. This association was evident for pre-pregnancy BMI independently (p<0.001), and it also persisted after adjusting for maternal age, education, income, parity, smoking and physical activity (p<0.05). The association between maternal anthropometry during pregnancy and blood pressure was not as strong and was therefore less informative. The study reinforces the role of BMI on SBP and DBP and highlights its importance during prenatal care monitoring. Significant association also emerged between blood pressure in pregnancy and place of residence (mainland vs. island). Women on Dalmatian islands have lower educational level, higher pre-pregnancy BMI and different levels of blood pressure than women from the mainland (namely, higher SBP and lower DBP). Such comparisons between mainland and island populations are valuable, because they can, in the long term, lead to better maternal health care on the islands

Common SNPs in FTO Gene Are Associated with Obesity Related Anthropometric Traits in an Island Population from the Eastern Adriatic Coast of Croatia

Multiple studies have provided compelling evidence that the FTO gene variants are associated with obesity measures. The objective of the study was to investigate whether FTO variants are associated with a broad range of obesity related anthropometric traits in an island population.We examined genetic association between 29 FTO SNPs and a comprehensive set of anthropometric traits in 843 unrelated individuals from an island population in the eastern Adriatic coast of Croatia. The traits include 11 anthropometrics (height, weight, waist circumference, hip circumference, bicondilar upper arm width, upper arm circumference, and biceps, triceps, subscapular, suprailiac and abdominal skin-fold thicknesses) and two derived measures (BMI and WHR). Using single locus score tests, 15 common SNPs were found to be significantly associated with "body fatness" measures such as weight, BMI, hip and waist circumferences with P-values ranging from 0.0004 to 0.01. Similar but less significant associations were also observed between these markers and bicondilar upper arm width and upper arm circumference. Most of these significant findings could be explained by a mediating effect of "body fatness". However, one unique association signal between upper arm width and rs16952517 (P-value = 0.00156) could not be explained by this mediating effect. In addition, using a principle component analysis and conditional association tests adjusted for "body fatness", two novel association signals were identified between upper arm circumference and rs11075986 (P-value = 0.00211) and rs16945088 (P-value = 0.00203).The current study confirmed the association of common variants of FTO gene with "body fatness" measures in an isolated island population. We also observed evidence of pleiotropic effects of FTO gene on fat-free mass, such as frame size and muscle mass assessed by bicondilar upper arm width and upper arm circumference respectively and these pleiotropic effects might be influenced by variants that are different from the ones associated with "body fatness"

Branched-chain amino acid database integrated in MEDIPAD software as a tool for nutritional investigation of mediterranean populations

Branched-chained amino acids (BCAA) are essential dietary components for humans and can act as potential biomarkers for diabetes development. To efficiently estimate dietary intake, we developed a BCAA database for 1331 food items found in the French Centre d'Information sur la Qualité des Aliments (CIQUAL) food table by compiling BCAA content from international tables, published measurements, or by food similarity as well as by calculating 267 items from Greek, Turkish, Romanian, and Moroccan mixed dishes. The database embedded in MEDIPAD software capable of registering 24 h of dietary recalls (24HDR) with clinical and genetic data was evaluated based on archived 24HDR of the Saint Pierre Institute (France) from 2957 subjects, which indicated a BCAA content up to 4.2 g/100 g of food and differences among normal weight and obese subjects across BCAA quartiles. We also evaluated the database of 119 interviews of Romanians, Turkish and Albanians in Greece (27⁻65 years) during the MEDIGENE program, which indicated mean BCAA intake of 13.84 and 12.91 g/day in males and females, respectively, comparable to other studies. The MEDIPAD is user-friendly, multilingual, and secure software and with the BCAA database is suitable for conducting nutritional assessment in the Mediterranean area with particular facilities for food administration

Extent of Height Variability Explained by Known Height-Associated Genetic Variants in an Isolated Population of the Adriatic Coast of Croatia

BACKGROUND: Human height is a classical example of a polygenic quantitative trait. Recent large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified more than 200 height-associated loci, though these variants explain only 2∼10% of overall variability of normal height. The objective of this study was to investigate the variance explained by these loci in a relatively isolated population of European descent with limited admixture and homogeneous genetic background from the Adriatic coast of Croatia. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In a sample of 1304 individuals from the island population of Hvar, Croatia, we performed genome-wide SNP typing and assessed the variance explained by genetic scores constructed from different panels of height-associated SNPs extracted from five published studies. The combined information of the 180 SNPs reported by Lango Allen el al. explained 7.94% of phenotypic variation in our sample. Genetic scores based on 20~50 SNPs reported by the remaining individual GWA studies explained 3~5% of height variance. These percentages of variance explained were within ranges comparable to the original studies and heterogeneity tests did not detect significant differences in effect size estimates between our study and the original reports, if the estimates were obtained from populations of European descent. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We have evaluated the portability of height-associated loci and the overall fitting of estimated effect sizes reported in large cohorts to an isolated population. We found proportions of explained height variability were comparable to multiple reference GWAS in cohorts of European descent. These results indicate similar genetic architecture and comparable effect sizes of height loci among populations of European descent