Genetic and Environmental Determinants of Variation of Soluble Adhesion Molecules |
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Authors: | Yulia Vistoropsky Svetlana Trofimov Ia Pantsulaia Gregory Livshits |
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Affiliation: | Department of Anatomy and Anthropology;Yoran Institute for Human Genome Research, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel;Department of Biomedicine, Institute of Medical Biotechnology, Georgian Academy of Sciences, Georgia |
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Abstract: | In our research we examined the contribution of putative genetic sources on interindividual variation and cross-sectional correlations of several adhesion molecules, including intracellular (ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecules (VCAM-1) and E-selectin, in a population-based sample of ethnically homogeneous families of European origin. The plasma levels of these molecules were measured in 947 apparently healthy individuals from 217 nuclear families. Quantitative statistical-genetic analysis implementing the model fitting technique revealed significant parent/offspring and sibling correlations (p < 0.01) for all three molecules. The putative genetic effects explained 55.2 ± 7.2% (VCAM-1), 63.3 ± 7.5% (ICAM) and 63.8 ± 8.1% (E-selectin) of the variation. Common family environmental factors also significantly influenced the variation of E-selectin (13%) and VCAM-1 (28.6%). The main results of our bivariate analysis showed that the observed phenotypic correlations between ICAM-1 and VCAM-1, and between ICAM-1 and E-selectin, were mostly attributable to shared environmental factors ( rE= 0.896 and 0.737, respectively; p < 0.01). However, the correlation between VCAM-1 and E-selectin was likely caused by common genetic effects (rG= 0.334, p < 0.05) . Our results show that familial clustering of adhesion molecules is likely due to strong genetic effects, supplemented with shared environmental factors. |
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Keywords: | ICAM-1 VCAM-1 E-selectin heritability genetic correlations |
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