High heritability of bone size at the hip and spine in Chinese.
Bone size, an independent determinant of bone strength, is an important risk factor for osteoporotic fracture. In the present study, we investigated the magnitude of the genetic determination of bone size at the spine and hip and their genetic covariation (if any) in a population of Chinese residing in Shanghai City of P.R. China. The subjects were 50 healthy full-sib pairs of females, 188 mother-daughter pairs, and 128 husband-wife pairs selected from 401 nuclear families. Bone size (centimeters squared) was measured at the spine and hip by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). The narrow-sense heritabilities h2 (SE) of bone size at the spine and hip were 0.63 (0.14) and 0.45 (0.14) respectively when estimated by full-sib pairs, and 0.60 (0.07) and 0.69 (0.07) respectively when estimated by mother-daughter pairs. Marginally significant genetic correlation was observed between the spine and hip bone size. The significantly and moderately high h2 values for bone size demonstrated in this study warrant a subsequent genetic study to search for the genes or genomic regions underlying the phenotype in Chinese.
Jian
Wei-Xia
WX
Laboratory of Molecular and Statistical Genetics, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, 410081, Changsha Hunan, P.R. China.
Long
Ji-Rong
JR
Osteoporosis Research Center and Department of Biomedical Sciences, Suite 6787, Creighton University, 601 N. 30th St., Omaha, NE 68131, USA.
Deng
Hong-Wen
HW
Laboratory of Molecular and Statistical Genetics, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, 410081, Changsha Hunan, P.R. China. deng@creighton.edu.|Osteoporosis Research Center and Department of Biomedical Sciences, Suite 6787, Creighton University, 601 N. 30th St., Omaha, NE 68131, USA. deng@creighton.edu.
D015502:Absorptiometry, Photon; D000328:Adult; D000886:Anthropometry; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006615:Hip / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010024:Osteoporosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013131:Spine / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*