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agate
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 Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 8:28 am Post subject: (Article, abstract) Dads more likely to pass MS on? |
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From Medscape WebMD July 26, 2006 [emphasis added]:
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Fathers More Likely to Pass MS On
Miranda Hitti
July 25, 2006 -- Kids may be more likely to inherit multiple sclerosis (MS) from their fathers than their mothers.
That news -- published in today's issue of Neurology -- may, at first glance, seem to defy MS statistics. MS is about twice as common in women as in men.
But "fathers with MS tend to have more children who develop MS than do mothers with the disease," says neurologist Brian Weinshenker, MD, in a Mayo Clinic news release.
Weinshenker helped conduct the new study. He works at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minn., along with fellow researcher and neurologist Orhun Kantarci, MD.
The findings shouldn't affect how men with MS are counseled about their children's MS risk, Kantarci says in the news release. The study is "primarily of interest to scientists," he explains.
Checking the Family Tree
The researchers studied 441 children in 206 families who had a father or mother with MS. Of those children, 45 definitely had MS.
Children of fathers with MS were about twice as likely to have definite MS as those whose mothers had MS, even after taking MS risk factors into account, the study shows.
Scientists don't know exactly what causes MS. But they suspect a mix of genetic and environmental factors is involved.
The study doesn't pinpoint the reason for the parent-child MS trend. But the researchers have a theory.
"The hypothesis of the study is that men are more resistant to MS, so they need stronger or a larger number of genes in order to develop MS, and then pass these genes to their children," Kantarci says.
The findings need confirmation. Meanwhile, Kantarci puts the odds in perspective with this explanation:
The risk of having MS if you've got a parent with the disease is about 20 times higher than if you don't have a parent with MS. The additional risk of having a father with MS is not sufficient to change patient counseling practices.
SOURCES: Kantarci, O. Neurology, July 25, 2006; vol 67: pp 305-310. News release, Mayo Clinic.
Reviewed by Louise Chang
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agate
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| Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 2:24 pm Post subject: |
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This abstract is from PubMed today:
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Neurology. 2006 Jul 25;67(2):305-10
Men transmit MS more often to their children vs women: the Carter effect
Kantarci OH, Barcellos LF, Atkinson EJ, Ramsay PP, Lincoln R, Achenbach SJ, De Andrade M, Hauser SL, Weinshenker BG.
Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. kantarci.orhun@mayo.edu
OBJECTIVE: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is approximately twice as common among women as men. If men have greater physiologic resistance to MS, they might theoretically require stronger genetic predisposition than women to overcome this resistance. In this circumstance, men would be expected to transmit the disease more often to their children, a phenomenon known as the Carter effect. The authors evaluated whether the Carter effect is present in MS.
METHODS: The authors studied 441 children (45 with definite MS) of an affected father or mother (197 families of interest) from 3598 individuals in 206 multiplex pedigrees. The authors compared transmission of MS from affected men with transmission from affected women.
RESULTS: Fathers with MS transmitted the disease to their children more often (transmitted: 18, not transmitted: 99) than mothers with MS (transmitted: 27, not transmitted: 296) (p = 0.032; OR: 1.99, 95% CI: 1.05, 3.77). Adjusting for both the sex of the affected child and multiple transmissions from a single affected parent, the sex of the affected parent remained as an independent risk factor for transmission of MS to children, fathers transmitting more often than mothers (p = 0.036; OR: 2.21, 95% CI: 1.05, 4.63).
CONCLUSIONS: The authors have demonstrated the Carter effect in multiple sclerosis (MS). These observations may be explained by greater genetic loading in men that leads to relative excess paternal vs maternal transmission. Linkage analysis in genetic studies of MS may be more informative if patrilineal transmission were given additional weighting.
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agate
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| Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2006 10:58 pm Post subject: |
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A version of this article appeared in 360 Magazine, an online periodical for wheelchair users, and it provoked a letter from a subscriber:
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Letter to the Editor
A 360 reader sounds off about a report in our August 4 issue regarding a new study that found men transmit multiple sclerosis to their children more often than women.
Concerning the article about men [passing] on MS more than women, yes it’s true…But should we who have MS worry about it to the point of guilt? I remember a woman where I used to work had MS before I did. The boss thought she was wrong to have a baby as her disability was getting worse all the time. Anyway she had the baby and soon after the MS did get ugly for her, but to this day she loves her girl, the only one she ever had. We can’t allow ourselves to have guilt trips that connect with our disability -- Richard Tanner
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