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Heritability estimates of innate immunity: an extended twin study

Genes & Immunity volume 6, pages 167–170 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

Cytokines are key players in numerous inflammatory processes. Demonstration of a heritable component in the variation of cytokine production would indicate that simultaneous occurrence of conditions might be caused by a heritable inflammatory characteristic. We applied an extended twin study approach to assess heritability estimates of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-1ra, IL-10, IL-6, and TNF-α production capacity after ex vivo stimulation with lipopolysaccharide. Cytokine production capacity was assessed in 42 monozygotic pairs, 52 dizygotic pairs, one trizygotic triplet, 33 single twins, and 83 additional siblings. Heritability estimates were derived from variance decomposition models using maximum likelihood estimation. For all cytokines, over 50% of the variance was genetically determined. IL-1ra and TNF-α had the lowest heritability estimate of 53%. Estimates for IL-6 and IL-10 were 57 and 62%, respectively. IL-1β had the highest estimate of 86%. We conclude that the production of cytokines is under tight genetic control.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Corine de Koning—Treurniet, Marja Kersbergen—van Oostrom, and Margot van Schie—Troost for whole blood stimulations and cytokine determinations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section Gerontology and Geriatrics, Department of General Internal Medicine, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands

    A J M de Craen, E J Remarque, A H J van den Biggelaar & R G J Westendorp

  2. Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, van der Boechorststraat 1, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    D Posthuma & D I Boomsma

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  1. A J M de Craen
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  2. D Posthuma
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  3. E J Remarque
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  4. A H J van den Biggelaar
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  5. R G J Westendorp
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Correspondence to A J M de Craen.

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de Craen, A., Posthuma, D., Remarque, E. et al. Heritability estimates of innate immunity: an extended twin study. Genes Immun 6, 167–170 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.gene.6364162

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