title: Evidence for genetic susceptibility to developing early childhood diarrhea among shantytown children living in northeastern Brazil.
abstract: To explore the genetic components of susceptibility to early childhood diarrhea (ECD), we used a quantitative genetic approach to estimate the heritability of ECD among children from two Brazilian favelas. Shared environment was used to model common exposure to environmental factors. Genetic relatedness was determined from pedigree information collected by screening household participants (n = 3,267) from two geographically related favelas located in Fortaleza, Brazil. There were 277 children within these pedigrees for whom diarrheal episodes in the first two years of life were recorded. Data on environmental exposure and pedigree relationship were combined to quantitatively partition phenotypic variance in ECD into environmental and genetic components by using a variance components approach as implemented in Sequential Oligogenic Linkage Analysis Routines program. Heritability accounted for 54% of variance in ECD and proximity of residence effect accounted for 21% (P < 0.0001). These findings suggest a substantial genetic component to ECD susceptibility and the potential importance of future genetics studies.
authors: University of Virginia Center for Global Health, Charlottesville, USA.
authors: Relana C
authors: RC
authors: Pinkerton
authors: Reinaldo B
authors: RB
authors: Oriá
authors: Jack W
authors: JW
authors: Kent
authors: Anita
authors: A
authors: Kohli
authors: Claudia
authors: C
authors: Abreu
authors: Oluma
authors: O
authors: Bushen
authors: Aldo A M
authors: AA
authors: Lima
authors: John
authors: J
authors: Blangero
authors: Sarah
authors: S
authors: Williams-Blangero
authors: Richard L
authors: RL
authors: Guerrant
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D003968:Diarrhea, Infantile / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics*; D005190:Family; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006798:Housing; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008954:Models, Biological; D010375:Pedigree; D011203:Poverty; D015995:Prevalence; D012984:Software