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
14624725
TITLE
Sex differences in heritability of BMI: a comparative study of results from twin studies in eight countries.
ABSTRACT
Body mass index (BMI), a simple anthropometric measure, is the most frequently used measure of adiposity and has been instrumental in documenting the worldwide increase in the prevalence of obesity witnessed during the last decades. Although this increase in overweight and obesity is thought to be mainly due to environmental changes, i.e., sedentary lifestyles and high caloric diets, consistent evidence from twin studies demonstrates high heritability and the importance of genetic differences for normal variation in BMI. We analysed self-reported data on BMI from approximately 37,000 complete twin pairs (including opposite sex pairs) aged 20-29 and 30-39 from eight different twin registries participating in the GenomEUtwin project. Quantitative genetic analyses were conducted and sex differences were explored. Variation in BMI was greater for women than for men, and in both sexes was primarily explained by additive genetic variance in all countries. Sex differences in the variance components were consistently significant. Results from analyses of opposite sex pairs also showed evidence of sex-specific genetic effects suggesting there may be some differences between men and women in the genetic factors that influence variation in BMI. These results encourage the continued search for genes of importance to the body composition and the development of obesity. Furthermore, they suggest that strategies to identify predisposing genes may benefit from taking into account potential sex specific effects.
DATE PUBLISHED
2003 Oct
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
pubmed 2003/11/20 05:00
medline 2004/01/21 05:00
entrez 2003/11/20 05:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Schousboe K Schousboe Karoline K The Danish Twin Registry, Epidemiology, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark.
Willemsen G Willemsen Gonneke G
Kyvik KO Kyvik Kirsten O KO
Mortensen J Mortensen Jakob J
Boomsma DI Boomsma Dorret I DI
Cornes BK Cornes Belinda K BK
Davis CJ Davis Chayna J CJ
Fagnani C Fagnani Corrado C
Hjelmborg J Hjelmborg Jacob J
Kaprio J Kaprio Jaakko J
De Lange M De Lange Marlies M
Luciano M Luciano Michelle M
Martin NG Martin Nicholas G NG
Pedersen N Pedersen Nancy N
Pietiläinen KH Pietiläinen Kirsi H KH
Rissanen A Rissanen Aila A
Saarni S Saarni Suoma S
Sørensen TI Sørensen Thorkild I A TI
Van Baal GC Van Baal G Caroline M GC
Harris JR Harris Jennifer R JR
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 6
ISSUE: 5
TITLE: Twin research : the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies
ISOABBREVIATION: Twin Res
YEAR: 2003
MONTH: Oct
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN: 1369-0523
ISSNTYPE: Print
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Twin Res
COUNTRY: Australia
ISSNLINKING: 1369-0523
NLMUNIQUEID: 9815819
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Comparative Study
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
Twin Study
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GRANTID AGENCY COUNTRY
AA 08315 NIAAA NIH HHS United States
AA00145 NIAAA NIH HHS United States
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Australia
Body Mass Index
Child
Child, Preschool
Denmark
Female
Finland
Genetics, Medical
Great Britain
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Italy
Male
Middle Aged
Netherlands
Norway
Sex Factors
Sweden
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's