Finally, we also looked for a link between the rs7903146 variant of the TCF7L2 gene and features of the metabolic syndrome such as weight, body mass index, hypertriglyceridemia, hypertension, low HDL-c, as reported earlier [8,18], but could not observe this even when data were adjusted for age, race and abdominal circumpherence. The gene discussed is TCF7L2; the disease is metabolic syndrome.