Genetic variation within a metabolic motif in the chromogranin a promoter: pleiotropic influence on cardiometabolic risk traits in twins.

BACKGROUND The cardiometabolic syndrome comprised of multiple correlated traits, but its origin is incompletely understood. Chromogranin A (CHGA) is required for formation of the catecholamine secretory pathway in sympathochromaffin cells. In twin pair studies, we found that CHGA traits aggregated with body mass index (BMI), as well as its biochemical determinant leptin.