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Cord blood immunoglobulin E in like‐sexed monozygotic and dizygotic twins
Author(s) -
Husby S.,
Holm N. V.,
Christensen K.,
Skov R.,
Morling N.,
Petersen P. H.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
clinical genetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.543
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1399-0004
pISSN - 0009-9163
DOI - 10.1111/j.1399-0004.1996.tb02384.x
Subject(s) - immunoglobulin e , heritability , atopy , dizygotic twins , biology , dizygotic twin , twin study , cord blood , monozygotic twin , immunology , genetics , antibody , medicine , allergy , obstetrics
Genetic and environmental factors have been implicated in the etiology of atopy and of serum IgE levels. In order to eliminate post‐natal environmental influences we measured IgE in cord blood (CB‐IgE) from a cohort of unselected, like‐sexed twins. IgE determination was performed with a sensitive radioimmunoassay with a detection limit of 0.01 kU/l. Samples with contamination by maternal blood were identified by IgA determination and excluded. CB‐IgE was evaluated in 29 monozygotic (MZ) and 28 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs. The means and variances for IgE values were comparable for MZ and DZ twins when sex was controlled for. Placental anatomy (MZ twins with mono‐and dichorial placenta and DZ twins with one or two placentae) had no significant influence on the IgE levels. In an analysis of variance with subsampling the among‐pair, within‐pair and analytical variance components were calculated. The analytical variance was well below the biological variances. Biometrical analysis showed that the best model by Akaike Information Criteria was a model including only additive genetic and non‐shared environmental factors. With this model the heritability estimate was 0.8. These data suggest that the majority of the variation in CB‐IgE is accounted for by genetic factors, but a substantial effect of a common environment cannot be excluded with the present sample size.