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
16354181
TITLE
Genetic and environmental influences on skin pattern deterioration.
ABSTRACT
Sun exposure has been known to cause histological changes in the dermal layer of the skin. Using deterioration in the fine reticular patterning of the epidermal stratum corneum (skin pattern, as measured on the Beagley-Gibson scale) as a proxy measure of histological changes in the dermal layer, previous studies have typically assumed that degradation of skin pattern is largely caused by sun exposure. A twin study comprising 332 monozygotic twin pairs and 488 dizygotic twin pairs at ages 12, 14, and 16 was used to investigate the etiology of variation in skin pattern, particularly in relation to measured sun exposure and skin color. Our results indicate that although self-reported sun exposure is a significant contributor to variation in skin pattern, its effect is small, explaining only 3.4% of variation in skin pattern at age 14. Additive genetic effects explain 86% of variation in skin pattern at age 12 but these effects reduce with age so that 75% of variation is due to additive genetic effects at age 14 and 72% at age 16. This trend of diminishing genetic influences continues into adulthood, with 62% of variation due to non-additive genetic factors in a smaller adult sample (aged 32-86). Skin color explains 10.4% of variation in skin pattern at age 12, which is due to additive genetic influences common to both. Melanin content appears to provide a protective effect against skin pattern deterioration, perhaps because of the structural differences in melanosomes between different skin types or the free radical scavenging properties of melanin.
DATE PUBLISHED
2005 Dec
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
pubmed 2005/12/16 09:00
medline 2006/01/27 09:00
entrez 2005/12/16 09:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Shekar SN Shekar Sri Niranjan SN Genetic Epidemiology Unit, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Qld, Australia. sri.shekhar@qimr.edu.au
Luciano M Luciano Michelle M
Duffy DL Duffy David L DL
Martin NG Martin Nicholas G NG
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 125
ISSUE: 6
TITLE: The Journal of investigative dermatology
ISOABBREVIATION: J. Invest. Dermatol.
YEAR: 2005
MONTH: Dec
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN: 0022-202X
ISSNTYPE: Print
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: J Invest Dermatol
COUNTRY: United States
ISSNLINKING: 0022-202X
NLMUNIQUEID: 0426720
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Journal Article
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Twin Study
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
REFTYPE REFSOURCE REFPMID NOTE
ErratumIn J Invest Dermatol. 2006 Jun;126(6):1426-7
GRANTS
GRANTID AGENCY COUNTRY
CA88363 NCI NIH HHS United States
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Adolescent
Cohort Studies
Environment
Heterozygote Detection
Homozygote
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Models, Genetic
Nevus, Pigmented genetics
Skin Aging genetics
Skin Neoplasms genetics
Skin Physiological Phenomena genetics
Skin Pigmentation physiology
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's