Dietary fat modulates the relationship between polymorphisms in the TNFA and IL-6 genes, and obesity and serum lipid concentrations in black and white South Afican women

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.The primary aim of the thesis was to investigate associations between TNFA (TNFA-308 G>A and -238 G>A) and IL-6 (-174 G>C, IVS3+281 G>T, IVS4+869 A>G) sequence variants and obesity and serum lipid concentrations in black and white SA women. This included identifying sequence variants in the IL-6 gene with a reported high heterozygosity in both the white and black SA populations (rs1554606 and sr2069845). Dietary intake data of adequate reporters was then included in the analysis to investigate whether dietary fatty acid intake modulated the interactions between the TNFA and IL-6 SNPs (TNFA -308 G>A and -238 G>A & IL-6 -174 G>C, IVS3+281 G>T, IVS4+869 A>G) and obesity, measures of adiposity and serum lipid concentrations, and whether interactions identified differed between black and white women