title: Concordance of ulcerative colitis in monozygotic twin sisters.
abstract: The etiology of inflammatory bowel disease is multifactorial and appears to combine both genetic and environmental factors. We experienced here a rare occurrence of woman monozygotic twins with ulcerative colitis (UC). A 45-year-old woman (the elder monozygotic twin) was admitted to our hospital because of bloody diarrhea occurring over 10 times per day, abdominal pain and fever. She was diagnosed as UC at the age of 22, and repeated the relapse and remission. She was diagnosed as relapse of UC and total colitis type. Her younger monozygotic twin sister also suffered from UC at the age of 22. Human leukocyte antigen was examined serologically with DNA type in both patients. DRB1*1502, which was previously shown to be dominant in Japanese patients with UC, was not observed in this case. Although the concordance in monozygotic twin in UC is reported to be 6.3-18.8%, the concordant case like this is relatively rare. We report this rare case of UC and the previously reported cases are also discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Molecular Science, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, 3-39-15 Showa-machi, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8511, Japan.
authors.forename: Madoka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Horiya
authors.forename: Satoru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kakizaki
authors.forename: Katsunobu
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Teshigawara
authors.forename: Yuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kikuchi
authors.forename: Tetsu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hashida
authors.forename: Yoshio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tomizawa
authors.forename: Tomohiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Iida
authors.forename: Takashige
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Masuo
authors.forename: Hitoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Takagi
authors.forename: Masatomo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mori
mesh_terms: D003093:Colitis, Ulcerative / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*; D003113:Colonoscopy; D005260:Female; D006650:Histocompatibility Testing; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D014430:Twins, Monozygotic