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Genetic influences on premature parturition in an Australian twin sample

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2012

Susan A Treloar ,
George A Macones ,
Laura E Mitchell  and
Nicholas G Martin
Susan A Treloar*
Affiliation:
Queensland Institute of Medical Research and Joint Genetics Program, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. sueT@qimr.edu.au
George A Macones
Affiliation:
The University of Pennsylvania Health System.
Laura E Mitchell
Affiliation:
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Nicholas G Martin
Affiliation:
Queensland Institute of Medical Research and Joint Genetics Program, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
*
*Correspondence: Susan A Treloar, PhD, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, PO Royal Brisbane Hospital, Queensland 4029, Australia. Tel: 617 3362 0229; Fax: 617 3362 0101

Abstract

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We investigated possible genetic influences on women's liability to preterm birth, using data from a large sample of Australian female twin pairs. In a 1988–90 questionnaire survey, both members of 905 parous twin pairs (579 monozygotic and 326 dizygotic) reported on whether deliveries had been more than two weeks preterm. Tetrachoric twin pair correlations for first birth were rMZ = 0.20 ± 0.11 and rDZ = −0.03 ± 0.14, and for any birth were rMZ = 0.30 ± 0.08 and rDZ = 0.03 ± 0.11. Best-fitting models to data contained only additive genetic influences and individual environmental effects. Heritability was 17% for preterm delivery in first pregnancy, and 27% for preterm delivery in any pregnancy. In the former case, however, we could not reject a model without genetic influences. Although our data did not allow for differentiation of the varying aetiologies of premature parturition, results from this exploratory analysis suggest that further investigation of genetic influences on specific reasons for preterm birth is warranted. Twin Research (2000) 3, 80–82.

Keywords

Preterm birthpregnancy outcometwinsgenetics
Type
Articles
Information
Twin Research and Human Genetics , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , 01 April 2000 , pp. 80 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2000