Collaboration between the University of Bristol and IGMM researchers: December 2014
Researchers at University of Bristol, working with collaborators including IGMM researchers Archie Campbell, Riccardo Marioni and Caroline Hayward, studied a variant in the CHRNA5-A3-B4 gene cluster which is known to increase smoking heaviness.
They found that the variant is associated with lower BMI in current smokers, but higher in people who have never smoked. This difference in effects suggests that the variant influences BMI in opposite directions – via pathways other than smoking for those who have never smoked and by increasing the weight-reducing effects of smoking in those who smoke.