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PubMed2004

Heritability estimates for beta cell function and features of the insulin resistance syndrome in UK families with an increased susceptibility to type 2 diabetes.

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: The aim of this study was to measure the heritability estimates for metabolic traits and the features of the insulin resistance syndrome in families with an increased genetic susceptibility to Type 2 diabetes. METHODS: A total of 811 non-diabetic relatives from 278 pedigrees of northern European extraction in which there was a sib-pair with Type 2 diabetes were recruited and studied at the six Diabetes UK Warren Type 2 diabetes centres. Heritability estimates were calculated, allowing for key covariates (age, sex, BMI and recruitment centre). Values greater than 0.10 were considered statistically significant in comparison to zero. RESULTS: Fasting glucose concentration and homeostasis model assessment of pancreatic beta cell function (HOMA %B) had the highest heritability estimates of 0.72 and 0.78 respectively. Heritability estimates for the features of the insulin resistance syndrome (BMI, WHR, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, serum lipids and homeostasis model assessment of insulin sensitivity [HOMA %S]) were also high. The heritability estimate for fasting glucose was markedly higher in the present study (0.77 vs 0.21 adjusted for age and sex; p<0.001) than in a comparable study of families from the same background population but with no increased susceptibility to diabetes. However, the estimates for the features of the insulin resistance syndrome were similar in the two studies. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: In families with a high risk of Type 2 diabetes, the heritability estimates for fasting glucose, pancreatic beta cell function and the features of the insulin resistance syndrome were all high. The higher heritability estimate for pancreatic beta cell function suggests that this resource may be most effective when investigating genetic susceptibility to beta cell dysfunction.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Heritability of fasting glucose levels in a young genetically isolated population.

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: The heritability of fasting glucose levels in Northern European populations has been examined previously in twins and samples of small pedigrees. In this study the heritability of fasting plasma glucose (FPG) was estimated in participants in the Erasmus Rucphen Family study, who were members of a single pedigree from a young genetic isolate. We also studied the relationship between FPG and components of the metabolic syndrome. METHODS: FPG, lipid, blood pressure and body composition measurements were completed for 852 participants without diabetic medication. The most significant predictors of FPG were used as covariates in heritability estimation. The sibship effect, which is a composite of genetic dominance and shared early-life environmental effects, was included as a random effect. RESULTS: The age- and sex-adjusted heritability of log normal-transformed FPG was 36.6%. When further adjusted for metabolic risk factors, namely body composition parameters, systolic blood pressure, triglycerides and cholesterol: HDL ratio, the heritability estimate rose to 42.8%. After adjustment for the sibship effect, the additive component of heritability was estimated to be 28.3% (age- and sex-adjusted) and 24.9% (full model). CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Genes control a significant proportion of the variance in FPG levels. Adjustment for other metabolic risk factors did not substantially change the heritability estimate, which suggests that a large part of the variance in FPG levels is due to genes that act through pathways that are independent of those controlling body composition, blood pressure and lipid levels.

Blood Glucose↗
PubMed2004

Ocular refraction: heritability and genome-wide search for eye morphometry traits in an isolated Sardinian population.

No genes influencing oculometric phenotypes have yet been identified, despite it being well known that eye morphometry is involved in refraction and that genetics may play an important role. We have therefore performed a heritability analysis and genome-wide search (GWS) of biometric ocular traits in an isolated Sardinian population, assessing the genetic contribution and identifying the associated genetic loci. A complete eye examination including refraction and ocular biometry measurements such as axial length (AL), anterior chamber depth (ACD) and corneal curvature (CC), was performed on 789 subjects. Heritability analysis was carried out by means of parent-offspring regression and variance component models. Univariate and bivariate linkage analysis was performed by using 654 microsatellite markers spanning the genome. CC showed a mean heritability of 57%. AL and ACD were found to have significantly different variances (P<0.01) in males and females, so that heritability was calculated separately for each sex. AL had an estimated heritability in females of 31% and in males of 60%, whereas ACD had an estimated heritability of 47% in females and of 44% in males. In the GWS, the most suggestive evidence of linkage was identified on chromosome 2 for AL (LOD 2.64), on chromosome 1 for ACD (LOD 2.32) and on chromosomes 7, 2 and 3 for CC (LOD 2.50, 2.44 and 2.34, respectively). High heritability of eye morphometry traits was thus revealed. The identified loci are the first linkage signals available in ocular biometry. Notably, the observed significant differences in parental transmission deserve further study.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Comparison of dominant lethal and heritable translocation methodologies.

Groups of male Alderly Park mice of proven fertility were dosed by gavage for 5 consecutive days per week for 8 weeks or 5 consecutive days only with 100 or 150 mg/kg body weight ethyl methanesulphonate (EMS) or by intraperitoneal injection once a week for 8 weeks or once only with 500 mg/kg shikimic acid. Animals dosed in this manner were compared in the dominant lethal and heritable translocation assays. Animals were mated for 2 consecutive weeks following the 8-week treatment and for 8 consecutive weeks after the 1-week treatment: regimes which were thus non-specific and specific respectively for the stages of spermatogenesis. An additional method of measuring dominant lethality involving counting uterine scars after weaning (Soares (1972) Mutation Res., 16, 425-427) was used and also compared with the conventional method. EMS was clearly confirmed as a mutagen but this was not the case for shikimic acid. For screening purposes the dominant lethal 8-week mating assay was much more efficient in return for the same effort for detecting mutagenic responses than an 8-week mating heritable translocation assay, since the induction of dominant lethal effects paralleled the induction of heritable translocations. 8-week treatment with EMS showed increased dominant lethality but severely reduced fertility and the small numbers of male offspring born made potential heritable effects difficult to assess. The 1-week treatment with EMS produced both dominant lethal and heritable effects. Soares' method can be useful for determining dominant lethal effects in a heritable translocation assay. The "sieving" method of mating to determine partial and total sterility questions the necessity for a negative control in a heritable translocation study.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Heritability of calcaneal quantitative ultrasound measures in healthy adults from the Fels Longitudinal Study.

Quantitative ultrasound (QUS) measurements of bone have been reported to predict osteoporotic fracture risk in postmenopausal women and older men. Although many studies have examined the heritability of bone mineral density (BMD), few studies have estimated the heritability of calcaneal QUS phenotypes. In the present study, we examined the genetic regulation of calcaneal QUS parameters in individuals from nuclear and extended families. The study population includes 260 men and 295 women aged 18-91 years (mean+/-SD: 46+/-16 years) who belong to 111 pedigrees in the Fels Longitudinal Study. Three measures of calcaneal structure were collected from both the right and left heel using the Sahara bone sonometer. These measures included broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA), speed of sound (SOS), and the quantitative ultrasound index (QUI). We used a variance components based maximum likelihood method to estimate the heritability of QUS parameters while simultaneously adjusting for covariate effects. Additionally, we used bivariate extensions of these methods to calculate additive genetic and random environmental correlations among QUS measures. All phenotypes demonstrated statistically significant heritabilities (P<0.0000001). Heritabilities in the right heel (h2+/-SE) were h2=0.59+/-0.10 for BUA, h2=0.73+/-0.09 for SOS, and h2=0.72+/-0.09 for QUI. Similarly, heritabilities for the left heel were h2=0.52+/-0.10, h2=0.75+/-0.10, and h2=0.70+/0.10, respectively. There was evidence for significant genetic and environmental correlations among these six QUS measures. Combinations of QUS measures in the right and left heel demonstrated genetic correlations of 0.94-0.99 and all were significantly different from one indicating at least a partially unique genetic architecture for each of these measures. This study demonstrates that QUS measures of the calcaneus among healthy men and women are heritable, and there are large shared additive genetic effects among all of the traits examined.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Determinants and heritability of intraocular pressure and cup-to-disc ratio in a defined older population.

PURPOSE: To investigate the heritability of intraocular pressure (IOP) and cup-to-disc ratio (CDR) in an older well-defined population. DESIGN: Family-based cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: Through the population-based Salisbury Eye Evaluation study, we recruited 726 siblings (mean age, 74.7 years) in 284 sibships. METHODS: Intraocular pressure and CDR were measured bilaterally for all participants. The presence or absence of glaucoma was determined by a glaucoma specialist for all probands on the basis of visual field, optic nerve appearance, and history. The heritability of IOP was calculated as twice the residual between-sibling correlation of IOP using linear regression and generalized estimating equations after adjusting for age, gender, mean arterial pressure, race, self-reported diabetes status, and history of systemic steroid use. The heritability of CDR was calculated using the same model and adjustments as above, while also adjusting for IOP. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Heritability and determinants of IOP and CDR, and impact of siblings' glaucoma status on IOP and CDR. RESULTS: We estimated the heritability to be 0.29 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.12-0.46) for IOP and 0.56 (95% CI, 0.35-0.76) for CDR in this population. Mean IOP in siblings of glaucomatous probands was statistically significantly higher than in siblings of normal probands (mean difference, 1.02 mmHg; P = 0.017). The mean CDR in siblings of glaucomatous probands was 0.07 (or 19%) larger than in siblings of glaucoma suspect referrals (P = 0.045) and siblings of normal probands (P = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: In this elderly population, we found CDR to be highly heritable and IOP to be moderately heritable. On average, siblings of glaucoma patients had higher IOPs and larger CDRs than siblings of nonglaucomatous probands.

Aged↗
PubMed2001

Familial resemblance and heritability.

Familial resemblance, which arises when members within families are more similar than are unrelated pairs of individuals, may be estimated in terms of correlations (or covariances) among family members. The magnitudes of such correlations generally reflect both the extent of environmental sharing and the degree of biological relationship between the relatives. Heritability, or more appropriately multifactorial heritability or generalized heritability, quantifies the strength of the familial resemblance and represents the percentage of variance ina trait that is due to all additive familial effects including additive genetic effects and those of the familial environment. However, the traditional concept of heritability, which may be more appropriately called the genetic heritability, represents only the percentage of phenotypic variance due to additive genetic effects. Resolving the sources of familial resemblance entails other issues. For example, there may be major gene effects that may be largely or entirely nonadditive, temporal or developmental trends, and gene-gene (epistasis) and gene-environment interactions. The design of a family study determines which of these sources are resolvable. For example, in intact nuclear families consisting of parents and offspring, the genetic and familial environmental effects are not resolvable because these relatives share both genes and environments. However, extended pedigrees and twin and adoption study designs allow separation of the heritable effects and, possibly, more complex etiologies, including interactions. Various factors affect the estimation and interpretability of heritability, for example, assumptions regarding linearity and additivity of the effects, assortative mating, and the underlying distribution of the data. Nonnormality of the data can lead to errors in hypothesis testing, although it yields reasonably unbiased estimates. Fortunately, these and other complications can be directly modeled in many of the sophisticated software packages available today in genetic epidemiology.

Adoption↗
PubMed2001

Heritability of diurnal changes in food intake in free-living humans.

OBJECTIVES: The time of day of meal ingestion, the number of people present at the meal, the subjective state of hunger, and the estimated before-meal contents in the stomach have been established as influences on the amount eaten in a meal, and this influence has been shown to be heritable. Because these factors intercorrelate, the possibility that the calculated heritabilities for some of these variables could result indirectly from their convariation with one of the other heritable variables was assessed. METHODS: The independence of the heritability of the influence of these four factors was investigated with 110 identical and 102 fraternal same-sex and 53 fraternal mixed-sex adult twin pairs who were paid to maintain 7-d food intake diaries. From the diary reports, the meal sizes were calculated and subjected to multiple regression analysis using the estimated before-meal stomach contents, the reported number of other people present, the subjective hunger ratings, and the time of day of the meal as predictors. Linear structural modeling was applied to the beta coefficients from the multiple regression to investigate whether the heritability of the influences of these four variables was independent. RESULTS: Significant genetic effects were found for the beta coefficients for all four variables, indicating that the heritability of their relationship with intake is to some extent heritable. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the influences of multiple factors on intake are influenced by the genes and become part of the total package of genetically determined physiologic, sociocultural, and psychological processes that regulate energy balance.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Independence of heritable influences on the food intake of free-living humans.

OBJECTIVE: The time of day of meal ingestion, the number of people present at the meal, the subjective state of hunger, and the estimated before-meal contents in the stomach have been established as influences on the amount eaten in a meal and these influences have been shown to be heritable. Because these factors intercorrelate, the calculated heritabilities for some of these variables might result indirectly from their covariation with one of the other heritable variables. The independence of the heritability of the influence of these four factors was investigated with 110 identical and 102 fraternal same-sex and 53 fraternal mixed-sex adult twin pairs who were paid to maintain 7-d food-intake diaries. METHODS: From the diary reports, the meal sizes were calculated and subjected to multiple regression analysis using the estimated before-meal stomach contents, the reported number of other people present, the subjective hunger ratings, and the time of day of the meal as predictors. Linear structural modeling was applied to the beta-coefficients from the multiple regression to investigate whether the heritability of the influences of these four variables was independent. RESULTS: Significant genetic effects were found for the beta-coefficients for all four variables, indicating that the heritability of their relationship with intake is to some extent independent and heritable. CONCLUSIONS: This suggests that influences of multiple factors on intake are influenced by the genes and become part of the total package of genetically determined physiologic, sociocultural, and psychological processes that regulate energy balance.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

The heritability of perceived stress.

BACKGROUND: Exploration of the degree to which perceived chronic stress is heritable is important as these self-reports have been linked to stress-related health outcomes. The aims of this study were to estimate whether perceived stress is a heritable condition and to assess whether heritability estimates vary between subjective stress reactivity and stress related to external demands. METHOD: A sample of 103 monozygotic and 77 dizygotic twin pairs completed three questionnaires designed to measure perceived stress: the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the Measure for the Assessment of Stress Susceptibility (MESA) and the Trier Inventory for the Assessment of Chronic Stress (TICS). The TICS assesses the frequency of stressful experiences on six scales, the MESA assesses subjective stress reactivity, and the PSS takes both factors into account. RESULTS: A multivariate model-fitting procedure revealed that a model with common additive genetic and shared environmental factors best fit the eight scales (PSS, MESA, six TICS scales). Heritabilities for the best-fitting model varied between 5% and 45%, depending on the scale. CONCLUSIONS: The present data suggest that perceived stress is in part heritable, that nearly half of the covariance between stress scales is due to genetic factors, and that heritability estimates vary considerably, depending on the questionnaire. Beyond methodological considerations that pertain to the validity of the questionnaires, these data suggest that studies assessing the heritability of perceived chronic stress should take the specific questionnaire focus into account.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Heritability of body composition measured by DXA in the diabetes heart study.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the heritability of body composition measured by DXA in the Diabetes Heart Study (DHS). RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Participants were 292 women and 262 men (age, 38 to 86 years; BMI, 17 to 57 kg/m(2)) from 244 families. There were 492 white and 49 African-American sibling pairs. DXA measurements of percentage fat mass (FM), whole body FM, and lean mass (LM), as well as regional measurements of trunk fat mass (TFM) and appendicular lean mass (ALM), were obtained. Heritability of FM, LM, and BMI were estimated using Sequential Oligogenic Linkage Analysis Routines. RESULTS: After adjusting for age, gender, ethnicity, and height, the heritability estimates of various compositional attributes were %FM = 0.64, whole body FM = 0.71, TFM = 0.63, whole body LM = 0.60, ALM = 0.66, and BMI = 0.64 (all p < 0.0001). Additional adjustment for diabetes status, smoking, dietary intake, and physical activity resulted in only minor changes in the heritability estimates (h(2) = 0.63 to 0.72, all p < 0.0001). Furthermore, heritability of TFM after additional adjustment for whole body FM was significant (h(2) = 0.55, p < 0.0001), and heritability of ALM after additional adjustment for whole body LM was also significant (h(2) = 0.51, p < 0.0001). DISCUSSION: These data suggest that FM and LM measured by DXA are highly heritable and can be effectively used in designing linkage studies to locate genes governing body composition. In addition, regional distribution of FM and LM may be genetically determined.

Absorptiometry, Photon↗
PubMed2004

Heritability of nectar production in Echium vulgare.

Heritabilities of nectar production in the wild species Echium vulgare were estimated as realised heritability under controlled and field conditions. The nectar production of offspring from high- and low-nectar-producing parents was significantly different in both controlled and field conditions, indicating that nectar production is in part genetically determined. The present study is the first one to report a genetic component of variation of nectar production in a wild plant species in the field. Heritability estimated under controlled conditions was 0.13 and therewith less than the heritability estimated under field conditions, which amounted to 0.26. Offspring of high-nectar-producing plants produced comparable amounts of nectar in the growth chamber (1.28 microl) and in the field (1.22 microl). In contrast, the nectar production of offspring of low-nectar-producing plants was significantly higher in the growth chamber (0.95 microl) than in the field (0.55 microl), indicating a genotype by environment interaction. The level of heritability of nectar production was dependent on the environment. Under less favourable conditions, like those in the field, heritability of nectar production increased. Nectar production was not correlated with any of the vegetative or reproductive traits measured, and hence no costs of nectar production could be detected. Results obtained stress the importance of field measurements in determining heritabilities.

Crosses, Genetic↗
PubMed2000

Urinary albumin excretion in families with type 2 diabetes is heritable and genetically correlated to blood pressure.

UNLABELLED: Urinary albumin excretion in families with type 2 diabetes is heritable and genetically correlated to blood pressure. BACKGROUND: Levels of urinary albumin excretion (UAE) are used to define both the diagnosis of diabetic nephropathy and its progression. Predisposition to high blood pressure is also a risk factor for susceptibility to nephropathy, but its relationship with UAE in type 2 diabetes remains unclear. In this study, we have estimated heritabilities of UAE and blood pressure and their correlation attributable to genetic effects using 96 large families ascertained for type 2 diabetes. METHODS: In these families, 630 individuals with type 2 diabetes and 639 individuals with normoglycemia were examined. All of them had a determination of UAE as the urinary albumin creatinine ratio (ACR), a convenient index of UAE, together with blood pressure and other variables, such as age, sex, and body mass index. A variance components approach was used to estimate heritability and genetic correlations for ACR and systolic and diastolic blood pressures (SBP and DBP) after adjustment for relevant covariates. RESULTS: In the 96 pedigrees, 6481 usable pairs of relatives were identified. In the total collection of pairs, heritability for ACR (h2 = 0.27, P < 0.001) was similar to that for blood pressure. When only pairs of diabetic relatives were analyzed (N = 1732), the estimates of heritability increased slightly for ACR (h2 = 0.31), SBP (h2 = 0.33), and DBP (h2 = 0.23). A significant genetic correlation was found between ACR and SBP (rg 0.27) and DBP (rg 0.26) in all pairs of relatives (P < 0.001). In pairs of diabetic relatives, these values were higher for SBP and DBP, 0.38 and 0.52, respectively. CONCLUSION: In families with type 2 diabetes, UAE is a heritable trait, with a heritability similar to that for blood pressure. A significant genetic correlation between UAE and blood pressure, particularly in the presence of diabetes, indicates that these traits share common genetic determinants.

Albuminuria↗
PubMed2002

Is cladogenesis heritable?

The heritability of speciation rates and extinction risks is a crucial parameter in models of macroevolution, but little direct evidence has been available to assess the occurrence, strength, or generality of this heritability. We tested for heritability using correlations between ancestral and descendent branch lengths in phylogenetic trees, an approach first applied to a bird phylogeny by Harvey et al. (1991, pages 123-137 in Genes in ecology [R. J. Berry et al., eds.], Blackwell Scientific, Oxford). We applied Harvey et al.'s test to some of the largest DNA sequence-based phylogenetic analyses published to date for plants, insects, fungi, and bacteria. If one of two parent lineages splits first and if this is the case for any heritable reason, then on average we expect its daughter lineages to also split first. We also used a randomization procedure to assess significance of branch length heritability. Using maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood branch lengths and trees made ultrametric after nonparametric rate smoothing or by enforcing a molecular clock, we found a pattern for most clades consistent with heritable net cladogenesis. Heritability of cladogenesis may be a general phenomenon, detectable across a large number of lineages and a broad range of taxa.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Estimation of heritability for Tying-up syndrome in the Thoroughbred racehorse by Gibbs sampling.

Tying-up is a condition that primarily affects the muscles of horses. In this study, the heritability of the Tying-up syndrome in the Thoroughbred racehorse was estimated by Bayesian analysis with Gibbs sampling based on the threshold model for binary traits. The data used were the clinical data in racehorses diagnosed by veterinarians of the Racehorse Clinics of Japan Racing Association from 2000 to 2003. The health status of the Tying-up was treated as a binary trait. In the genetic analysis, the effect of changing the amount of the pedigree or inbreeding information on the estimation of heritability was investigated, too. The heritability estimates with non-zero probability in the posterior densities were approximately 0.16-0.18 in minimum, suggesting that the heritability of the Tying-up is not zero at least. The posterior density distributions of the heritability estimates were generally more pointed and sharp with using inbreeding coefficients than without using it, suggesting that more stable estimations were obtained when inbreeding coefficients were used. Among the different amounts of pedigree and inbreeding information, the heritabilities obtained with three or four generations of pedigree using inbreeding coefficients seems to be preferable, i.e. heritability of 0.42 or 0.43 for Tying-up.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

A principal-components approach based on heritability for combining phenotype information.

For many traits, genetically relevant disease definition is unclear. For this reason, researchers applying linkage analysis often obtain information on a variety of items. With a large number of items, however, the test statistic from a multivariate analysis may require a prohibitively expensive correction for the multiple comparisons. The researcher is faced, therefore, with the issue of choosing which variables or combinations of variables to use in the linkage analysis. One approach to combining items is to first subject the data to a principal components analysis, and then perform the linkage analysis of the first few principal components. However, principal-components analyses do not take family structure into account. Here, an approach is developed in which family structure is taken into account when combining the data. The essence of the approach is to define principal components of heritability as the scores with maximum heritability in the data set, subject to being uncorrelated with each other. The principal components of heritability may be calculated as the solutions to a generalized eigensystem problem. Four simulation experiments are used to compare the power of linkage analyses based on the principal components of heritability and the usual principal components. The first of the experiments corresponds to the null hypothesis of no linkage. The second corresponds to a setting where the two kinds of principal components coincide. The third corresponds to a setting in which they are quite different and where the first of the usual principal components is not expected to have any power beyond the type I error rate. The fourth set of experiments corresponds to a setting where the usual principal components and the principal components of heritability differ, but where the first of the usual principal components is not without power. The results of the simulation experiments indicate that the principal components of heritability can be substantially different from the standard principal components and that when they are different, substantial gains in power can result by using the principal components of heritability in place of the standard principal components in linkage analyses.

Computer Simulation↗
PubMed2005

High heritability of ambulatory blood pressure in families of East African descent.

We estimated the heritability of ambulatory systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and pulse pressure (PP) in east African families with at least 2 hypertensive siblings and living in the Seychelles islands (Indian Ocean). The sample consisted of 314 individuals (147 men and 167 women), both normotensive and hypertensive, from 76 pedigrees (mean+/-SD of 4.1+/-2.8 persons per pedigree). After a 2-week off-treatment period, daytime and nighttime ambulatory blood pressure (BP) was monitored. Office BP was measured with a standard mercury sphygmomanometer. We estimated by maximum likelihood the age- and sex-adjusted heritabilities from the additive polygenic component of the variance of the traits allowing for the presence of other familial correlations. We also adjusted for ascertainment (ie, for the fact that 2 siblings had to be hypertensive) and examined the effect of adjusting for body mass index, 24-hour urinary excretion of sodium and potassium, plasma renin activity, and plasma aldosterone concentration. Heritability estimates (+/-SE) for ambulatory SBP, DBP, and PP were, respectively, 0.37+/-0.12/0.24+/-0.12/0.54+/-0.12 for daytime and 0.34+/-0.13/ 0.37+/-0.15/0.47+/-0.12 for nighttime measurements (P<0.05 for all estimates). Heritability estimates for office SBP, DBP, and PP were, respectively, 0.20+/-0.11, 0.05+/-0.09, and 0.37+/-0.12. Heritability estimates for SBP varied markedly according to whether participants were treated for hypertension at baseline. The present data show that ambulatory BP and PP have a high heritability in families of African descent. They also demonstrate that antihypertensive treatment and the number of BP measurements have a major influence on the heritability estimates.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Heritability of longitudinal change in lung function. The Framingham study.

There have been multiple reports of heritability of lung function in cross-sectional analysis, but no prior reports of heritability of rate of change in lung function. We examined heritability of rate of change of lung function in families participating in the Framingham Heart Study. Spirometric measures from two time points were used to calculate annualized rate of change in FEV(1), FVC, and FEV(1)/FVC ratio, adjusting for the effects of age, height, and weight using multiple linear regression models. Standardized residuals from these models were used as phenotypic variables in variance components analysis to assess effects of smoking and heritable factors on rate of change in lung function. Heritable factors explained a modest proportion of the population variance, with heritability estimates for change in FEV(1), FVC, and ratio of 0.05, 0.18, and 0.13, respectively. Restricting the analysis to subjects concordant for smoking status during the interval over which lung function was measured, the heritability estimates increased to 0.18, 0.39, and 0.14, respectively, among interim smokers. These data suggest that in middle-aged and older persons in the general population, genetic factors contribute modestly to the overall population variance in rate of lung function decline, and further suggest the importance of gene-environment interactions.

Adult↗