Genetic dissection of the syndrome X in the rat

In 1988, Reaven used the term syndrome X to describe a relation between sev eral disorders including hypertension, dyslipidemia, impaired glucose toler ance, obesity, and coronary heart disease. Despite a number of studies deal ing with syndrome X, its genetic basis remains poorly understood. Regarding the complexity of this syndrome, it is important to use animal models deve loping the traits of the disease. Here we show a genetic dissection of synd rome X in the WOKW rat, an animal model of genetically determined syndrome X, We found a major quantitative trait locus (QTL) for glucose metabolism o n chromosome 3 and further QTLs influencing obesity and body weight on chro mosomes 1 and 5, Genetic determinants of dyslipidemia were mapped to chromo somes 4 and 17. In addition, suggestive linkage for serum insulin was found on chromosome 1 to the region previously shown to be associated with type- 1 diabetes mellitus, This is the first study demonstrating independent gene tic factors influencing traits of the syndrome X in the rat as well as a po ssible genetic relationships between syndrome X and diabetes mellitus, More over, regarding the close similarities between WOKW rat and human syndrome X, the study could help in a search of genetic factors involved in this com plex metabolic disorder in human, (C) 2000 Academic Press.