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
16409204
TITLE
Variance components analyses of multiple asthma traits in a large sample of Australian families ascertained through a twin proband.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND NlmCategory: BACKGROUND
Intermediate phenotypes are often measured as a proxy for asthma. It is largely unclear to what extent the same set of environmental or genetic factors regulate these traits.
OBJECTIVE NlmCategory: OBJECTIVE
Estimate the environmental and genetic correlations between self-reported and clinical asthma traits.
METHODS NlmCategory: METHODS
A total of 3,073 subjects from 802 families were ascertained through a twin proband. Traits measured included self-reported asthma, airway histamine responsiveness (AHR), skin prick response to common allergens including house dust mite (Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus [D. pter]), baseline lung function, total serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) and eosinophilia. Bivariate and multivariate analyses of eight traits were performed with adjustment for ascertainment and significant covariates.
RESULTS NlmCategory: RESULTS
Overall 2,716 participants completed an asthma questionnaire and 2,087 were clinically tested, including 1,289 self-reported asthmatics (92% previously diagnosed by a doctor). Asthma, AHR, markers of allergic sensitization and eosinophilia had significant environmental correlations with each other (range: 0.23-0.89). Baseline forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV(1)) showed low environmental correlations with most traits. Fewer genetic correlations were significantly different from zero. Phenotypes with greatest genetic similarity were asthma and atopy (0.46), IgE and eosinophilia (0.44), AHR and D. pter (0.43) and AHR and airway obstruction (-0.43). Traits with greatest genetic dissimilarity were FEV(1) and atopy (0.05), airway obstruction and IgE (0.07) and FEV(1) and D. pter (0.11).
CONCLUSION NlmCategory: CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that the same set of environmental factors regulates the variation of many asthma traits. In addition, although most traits are regulated to great extent by specific genetic factors, there is still some degree of genetic overlap that could be exploited by multivariate linkage approaches.
DATE PUBLISHED
2006 Feb
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
pubmed 2006/01/18 09:00
medline 2006/06/23 09:00
entrez 2006/01/18 09:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Ferreira MA Ferreira M A R MA Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Australia.
O'Gorman L O'Gorman L L
Le Souëf P Le Souëf P P
Burton PR Burton P R PR
Toelle BG Toelle B G BG
Robertson CF Robertson C F CF
Martin NG Martin N G NG
Duffy DL Duffy D L DL
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 61
ISSUE: 2
TITLE: Allergy
ISOABBREVIATION: Allergy
YEAR: 2006
MONTH: Feb
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN: 0105-4538
ISSNTYPE: Print
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Allergy
COUNTRY: Denmark
ISSNLINKING: 0105-4538
NLMUNIQUEID: 7804028
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
Asthma genetics
Australia genetics
Eosinophilia genetics
Female genetics
Genetic Predisposition to Disease genetics
Humans genetics
Hypersensitivity genetics
Hypersensitivity, Immediate genetics
Immunoglobulin G blood
Male blood
Pedigree blood
Respiratory Function Tests blood
Twins genetics
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
REGISTRYNUMBER NAMEOFSUBSTANCE
0 Immunoglobulin G
OTHER ID's