Journal
ALLERGY
Volume 71, Issue 2, Pages 230-238Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/all.12783
Keywords
cohort study; epidemiology; heritability; pediatric; population-based twin cohort
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Funding
- Swedish Research Council [2011-3060]
- Swedish Initiative for research on Microdata in the Social And Medical Sciences (SIMSAM) [340-2013-5867]
- Stockholm County Council (ALF project)
- Strategic Research Program in Epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet
- Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation
- Swedish Asthma and Allergy Association's Research Foundation
- Ministry for Higher Education
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BackgroundAlthough the genetics of asthma has been extensively studied using both quantitative and molecular genetic analysis methods, both approaches lack studies specific to the childhood phenotype and including other allergic diseases. This study aimed to give specific estimates for the heritability of childhood asthma and other allergic diseases, to attempt to replicate findings from genomewide association studies (GWAS) for childhood asthma and to test the same variants against other allergic diseases. MethodsIn a cohort of 25 306 Swedish twins aged 9 or 12 years, data on asthma were available from parental interviews and population-based registers. The interviews also inquired about wheeze, hay fever, eczema, and food allergy. Through structural equation modeling, the heritability of all phenotypes was calculated. A subset of 10 075 twins was genotyped for 16 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) selected from previous GWAS; these were first tested for association with asthma and significant findings also against the other allergic diseases. ResultsThe heritability of any childhood asthma was 0.82 (95% CI 0.79-0.85). For the other allergic diseases, the range was approximately 0.60-0.80. Associations for six SNPs with asthma were replicated, including rs2305480 in the GSDMB gene (OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.74-0.86, P = 1.5*10(-8); other significant associations all below P = 3.5*10(-4)). Of these, only rs3771180 in IL1RL1 was associated with any other allergic disease (for hay fever, OR 0.64, 95% CI 0.53-0.77, P = 2.5*10(-6)). ConclusionAsthma and allergic diseases of childhood are highly heritable, and these high-risk genetic variants associated specifically with childhood asthma, except for one SNP shared with hay fever.
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