Genetic Epidemiology, Translational Neurogenomics, Psychiatric Genetics and Statistical Genetics Laboratories investigate the pattern of disease in families, particularly identical and non-identical twins, to assess the relative importance of genes and environment in a variety of important health problems.
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PMID
17083348
TITLE
Multivariate genetic analysis of atopy phenotypes in a selected sample of twins.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND NlmCategory: BACKGROUND
Atopic traits often co-occur and this can potentially be caused by common aetiological relationships between traits, i.e. a common genetic or a common environmental background.
OBJECTIVE NlmCategory: OBJECTIVE
To estimate to what extent the same genetic and environmental factors influence wheeze, rhinitis, airway hyper-responsiveness (AHR), and positive skin prick test (posSPT) in a sample of adult twins.
METHODS NlmCategory: METHODS
Within a sampling frame of 21,162 twin subjects, 20-49 years of age, from the Danish Twin Registry, a total of 575 subjects (256 intact pairs and 63 single twins), who either themselves and/or their co-twins reported a history of asthma at a nationwide questionnaire survey, were clinically examined. Symptoms of wheeze and rhinitis were obtained by interview; airway responsiveness and skin test reactivity were measured using standard techniques. Correlations in liability between the different traits were estimated and latent factor models of genetic and environmental effects were fitted to the observed data using maximum likelihood methods.
RESULTS NlmCategory: RESULTS
The various phenotypic correlations between wheeze, rhinitis, AHR and posSPT were all significant and ranged between 0.50 and 0.86. Traits that showed highest genetic correlations were wheeze-rhinitis (rho(A)=0.95), wheeze-AHR (rho(A)=0.85) and rhinitis-posSPT (rho(A)=0.92), whereas lower genetic correlations were observed for rhinitis-AHR (rho(A)=0.43) and AHR-posSPT (rho(A)=0.59). Traits with a high degree of environmental sharing were rhinitis-posSPT (rho(E)=0.92) and wheeze-posSPT (rho(E)=0.71), whereas a lower environmental correlation was seen for wheeze-rhinitis (rho(E)=0.25). The estimates were corrected for ascertainment and adjusted for age, sex, inhaled corticosteroids and smoking.
CONCLUSIONS NlmCategory: CONCLUSIONS
Different atopic conditions share, to a large extent, a common genetic background. In particular, upper and lower respiratory symptoms seem to be different phenotypic expressions of a common set of genes. These results add new insight into the origins of clinical heterogeneity within atopy and should stimulate the search for pleiotropic genes of importance for these conditions.
DATE PUBLISHED
2006 Nov
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
pubmed 2006/11/07 09:00
medline 2007/05/30 09:00
entrez 2006/11/07 09:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Thomsen SF Thomsen S F SF Department of Internal Medicine, Bispebjerg Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark. sft@city.dk
Ulrik CS Ulrik C S CS
Kyvik KO Kyvik K O KO
Ferreira MA Ferreira M A R MA
Backer V Backer V V
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 36
ISSUE: 11
TITLE: Clinical and experimental allergy : journal of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology
ISOABBREVIATION: Clin. Exp. Allergy
YEAR: 2006
MONTH: Nov
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN: 0954-7894
ISSNTYPE: Print
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Clin Exp Allergy
COUNTRY: England
ISSNLINKING: 0954-7894
NLMUNIQUEID: 8906443
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Twin Study
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Adult
Bronchial Provocation Tests
Diseases in Twins
Female
Genotype
Humans
Hypersensitivity genetics
Male genetics
Multivariate Analysis genetics
Phenotype genetics
Respiratory Sounds genetics
Rhinitis immunology
Skin Tests immunology
Twins, Dizygotic immunology
Twins, Monozygotic immunology
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's