Impact of Genes and the Environment on Obesity and Cardiovascular Disease

Dear Colleagues,

The increased prevalence of obesity and related comorbidities such as cardiovascular diseases is considered one of the major public health concerns around the world. Different factors, including societal, economics, cultural, and over-nutrition and sedentary behaviors, are considered the main reasons behind the spread of obesity, represented in the term “obesogenic environment”. However, other additional factors need to be considered, since in populations under an identical obesogenic environment, there are both obese and normal-weight individuals and a highly variable prevalence of cardiovascular diseases. It has been revealed that heritable factors seem to be responsible for 40–80% of body mass index variation. This highlights the importance of the genetic factor, i.e., the existence of genetic profiles making some more susceptible to weight gain than others. Different approaches to genetic analysis have revealed a large number of genetic variants involved in obesity, favoring the development of cardiovascular diseases. However, these genetic variants can rarely explain fully an individual’s anatomy or the occurrence of cardiovascular disease. Interaction effects among an obesogenic environment, obesity-predisposing gene variants, and regulating gene expression (epigenetic) seem to be crucial to understand the variable contribution of the genetic profile to obesity and cardiovascular diseases. Different epidemiologic approaches focused on gene–lifestyle interactions (nutrigenomic, nutrigenetic, gene-physical activity, etc.), obesogenic environment, and genetic variants will undoubtedly help to understand the complex and interconnected architecture of obesity and cardiovascular diseases development. Papers addressing these topics are invited to this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. José Javier Zamorano-León
Guest Editor

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• obesity
• cardiovascular diseases
• obesogenic environment
• genetic profiles
• lifestyle
• gene–environment interaction