This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (24)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related article  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Hoda M. Malaty, MD, PhD; David Y. Graham, MD; Inger Isaksson, BA; Lars Engstrand, MD; Nancy L. Pedersen, PhD

Arch Intern Med. 2000;160:105-109.

Background  Genetic factors play a role or roles in the etiology of peptic ulcer disease and the acquisition of Helicobacter pylori infection.

Objective  To evaluate the relative importance of genetic and environmental influences as well as the importance of H pylori on peptic ulcer disease.

Design  Cross-sectional study on monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins, reared apart or together.

Participants  Twins of the subregistry of the Swedish Twin Registry included in the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging.

Measurements  Peptic ulcer disease and H pylori status were assessed in MZ and DZ twin pairs reared apart or together. A total of 258 twin pairs had information regarding H pylori status and history of peptic ulcer. Helicobacter pylori status was assessed as the presence of anti–H pylori IgG.

Results  The intraclass correlations for peptic ulcer disease for MZ twins reared apart and together and DZ twins reared apart and together were 0.67, 0.65, 0.22, and 0.35, respectively, which indicates that genetic effects are important for liability to peptic ulcer. The correlation coefficient for MZ twins reared apart (0.67) provides the best single estimate of the relative importance of genetic effects (heritability) for variation in liability to peptic ulcer disease, and structural model fitting analyses confirmed this result (heritability, 62%). The cross-twin cross-trait correlations for MZ and DZ twins were examined to determine whether genetic effects for peptic ulcer were shared with or independent of genetic influences for H pylori. The cross-correlations for MZ and DZ twins were almost identical (0.25 and 0.29, respectively), suggesting that familial environmental rather than genetic influences mediate the association between peptic ulcer disease and H pylori infection.

Conclusions  Genetic influences are of moderate importance for liability to peptic ulcer disease. Genetic influences for peptic ulcer are independent of genetic influences important for acquiring H pylori infection.

From the Department of Medicine (Drs Malaty and Graham) and Division of Molecular Virology (Dr Graham), Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas; Division of Genetic Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden (Ms Isaksson and Dr Pedersen); Department of Clinical Microbiology, University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden (Dr Engstrand); and Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (Dr Pedersen).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLE

Archives of Internal Medicine Reader's Choice: Continuing Medical Education
Arch Intern Med. 2000;160(1):121-122.
FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Genetic Susceptibility to Severe Infection in Families with Invasive Pneumococcal Disease
Hjuler et al.
Am J Epidemiol 2008;167:814-819.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

What Is New Related to Helicobacter pylori Infection in Children and Teenagers?
Kato and Sherman
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2005;159:415-421.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Phenotypic differences in genetically identical organisms: the epigenetic perspective
Wong et al.
Hum Mol Genet 2005;14:R11-R18.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Gastric Cancer and Human Leukocyte Antigen: Distinct DQ and DR Alleles Are Associated with Development of Gastric Cancer and Infection by Helicobacter pylori
Magnusson et al.
Cancer Res. 2001;61:2684-2689.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT