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1From the State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Peoples Republic of China; and 2UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London, United Kingdom.
| Abstract |
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METHODS. Twins aged 8 to 16 years were recruited from the Guangzhou Twin Registry. IOP was measured in each twin and co-twin together, with a handheld tonometer by the same operator. Zygosity was determined based on genotyping with 16 polymorphic markers in all same-sex twin pairs. Heritability was estimated with a univariate variance component model.
RESULTS. Four hundred seventy-three twin pairs (309 monozygotic [MZ] and 164 dizygotic [DZ] twins) were available for data analyses. The mean IOP was 14.2 (SD 2.3) mm Hg. Neither age nor sex was correlated with IOP. Phenotypic correlation was 0.68 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.62–0.74) in MZ twins and 0.40 (95% CI, 0.26–0.52) in DZ twins. A genetic model involving additive genetic and unique environmental effects was the best fit. Heritability was estimated as 66.5% (95% CI, 60.6%–71.6%).
CONCLUSIONS. IOP is not correlated with age and sex in young children. Similar to the European population, the variation of IOP in healthy Chinese children is mainly attributable to additive genetic effects.
As a major and modifiable risk factor for glaucoma, the genetic determinants of IOP have been investigated in extended pedigree studies in the Beaver Dam and Salisbury cohorts.8 9 10 Familial aggregation analyses have consistently shown that the heritability of IOP is around 0.30 to 0.40. Segregation analysis has further demonstrated a mode of polygenic inheritance of IOP.11 Aggregation analysis based on extended families, however, is tempered by the fact that the environmental factors, particularly those that are not measurable, are often diversified to an unknown extent across generations or even among siblings when they are not at the same age. This difficulty makes the environmental effects difficult to adjust for.
Twin studies offer a unique opportunity to decompose the genetic and environmental effects in phenotypic variance.12 A comparison of similarities of phenotypes between monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins allows for the estimation of heritability when the pair-wise familial environmental variation is assumed to be the same between MZ and DZ twins. As far as we know, both a Finnish elderly twin cohort study and a U.K. adult twin study have documented very similar heritability of IOP.13 14 However, no heritability study in East Asian populations is available.
The purpose of this analysis was to describe the distribution and further explore the heritability of intraocular pressure in a Chinese young twin cohort identified from a population-based twin registry. The use of healthy young subjects offers an advantage that the IOP may be less affected by diversified environmental factors usually seen in adults, such as systematic diseases and hypertension medication use.
| Materials and Methods |
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This study was conducted in accordance with the tenets of the World Medical Associations Declaration of Helsinki. Ethics approval was obtained from the Zhongshan University Ethics Review Board and the Ethics Committee of Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center. Written informed consent was obtained for all participants.
Zygosity of all same-sex twin pairs was determined by molecular methods based on genotyping of 16 multiplex STR (PowerPlex 16 system; Promega, Madison, WI)16 at Forensic Medical Department of Sun Yat-sen University. Zygosity in opposite-sex twin pairs was classified as dizygotic without additional genotyping.
The twins and their co-twins were requested to present together for IOP measurement. IOP was measured with a handheld tonometer (Tonopen; Mentor, Norville, MA) in a similar fashion after instilling topical anesthesia (0.4% Oxybuprocaine; Santen, Osaka, Japan) by the same examiner (FX). The measurement was repeated when the SE was >5%. The tonometer was calibrated before use every day, according to the manufacturers instructions.
The IOP in the right eye was used for analysis as it is similar to the IOP in the left eye (correlation coefficient = 0.86; P < 0.001). To avoid dependence on co-twin data, data on the first-born twins were used for descriptive analysis.
IOP was treated as quantitative traits in quantitative genetic modeling. The estimation of heritability in twin studies is based on the assumption that MZ twins share 100% of their genes, whereas DZ twins, on average, share only half. Assuming that two types of twins share the same environmental factors, greater similarities in phenotypes of MZ represent additional gene sharing.17
The Mx program was used for genetic modeling based on the phenotypic correlation in MZ and DZ twins.18 In the full variance component model, the total phenotypic variance is decomposed into additive (A) genetic, dominant (D) genetic, common (C) environment, and unique (E) environment variances. The E component also includes measurement errors. Age and sex were treated as covariates in the model. The A variance represents the sum of the average effect of all alleles that influence a trait and correlates as 1.0 for MZ and 0.5 for DZ twins. The D variance reflects the genetic factors that result from a deviation of heterozygotes from an additive model and correlates as 1.0 for MZ and 0.25 for DZ twins. The E variance is the environmental factors that are unique to each member of a twin pair, and measurement error therefore does not contribute to the twin similarity. Because the C and D effects are confounded by each other and therefore cannot be tested in the same model, given that the intraclass correlation coefficient in DZ (r = 0.40) is greater than one half of the ones in MZ (r = 0.68), the model fitting starts from the ACE model. The determination of the best-fit reduced model was based on the
2 test and principles of parsimony: A significant change in
2 between the full and reduced models suggested that reduction was not acceptable, whereas a nonsignificant change in
2 suggested that the reduced model should be chosen as the best fit to achieve the best parsimony.
| Results |
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2 test, P = 0.111). On the other hand, the removal of the additive genetic effect (from the AE to the E model) created significant worsening of the model (
2 test, P < 0.001). Therefore, the AE model was identified as the best fit, in which the additive genetic effect (A) explained 66.5% (95% CI, 60.6%–71.6%) of phenotypic variances and unique environment (E) effect explained the remaining 33.5% (95% CI, 28.4%–39.4%; Table 2 ).
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| Discussion |
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The association of IOP with age in children is not consistent across studies. Sihota et al. 23 reported an increasing trend of IOP with age in Indian children, whereas the COMET study reported a decreasing trend in children with black, Hispanic, white, and mixed ethnicities.26 Ethnic differences could be an explanation for this discrepancy. Another source of difference is that their study involved children at very young ages (0–12 years), whereas the COMET study participants were mainly myopic children (6–11 years). Of interest, the SCORM study in Singapore has demonstrated that IOP is not correlated with age.20 The study involves Chinese Singaporean children at ages similar to those of our twins. It is therefore not surprising that this study demonstrates similar variations in IOP, not only with age but also with gender, compared with our findings.
To our best knowledge, we are the first to estimate genetic influences on IOP in Chinese. In a study of 61 MZ (mean age, 51.0 years) and 32 DZ (mean age, 38.8 years) twin pairs attending a twins festival in the United States, the ICC for IOP was 0.735 for MZ and 0.407 for DZ twins.27 This is consistent with the considerable genetic contribution to IOP, although heritability was not estimated. In an elderly Finnish twins cohort (94 MZ and 96 DZ female twins) aged 63 to 76 years, measured with a noncontact tonometer, the heritability of IOP was 0.64 (95% CI, 0.53–0.71), with common and unique environmental factors explaining 0.18 (95% CI, 0.11–0.27) and 0.18 (95% CI, 0.15–0.23) of remaining variances, respectively.13 In another study in the United Kingdom, with 211 MZ and 211 DZ adult twins (predominately Caucasians), the heritability of IOP was 0.62 (95% CI, 0.54–0.69), 0.63 (95% CI, 0.53–0.71), and 0.74 (95% CI, 0.67–0.76) with Goldmann applanation tonometry (GAT), dynamic contour tonometry (DCT), and ocular response analysis (ORA), respectively.14 Despite ethnic variations of IOP in diverse populations and different measurement devices being used, our heritability estimate of IOP (0.67; 95% CI, 0.61–0.72) in Chinese children is very similar to these findings. That IOP is a dynamic measure that tends to fluctuate during the day partially explains relatively lower heritability estimation in comparison with other biometric traits (such as axial length) because the E component also includes other random effects including measurement errors. However, the fact that the IOP heritability is reasonably high across different ethnic populations, not only in elderly but also in young cohort, indicates evidence of genetic influences for IOP and strongly supports the attempt to map the genes for IOP.
Three recent publications have provided insights into the underlying genetic mechanisms for IOP. Based on an extended primary open-angle glaucoma pedigree, multipoint linkage analyses have identified significant linkage (LOD score = 3.3, P = 0.00015) on 10q22 for maximum IOP.28 In 244 sibling pairs with type 2 diabetes in West Africa, genome-wide linkage scan for IOP revealed suggestive linkages on 5q22 (LOD = 2.50, nominal P = 0.0003 and empiric P = 0.0004) and 14q22 (LOD = 2.95, nominal P = 0.0001 and empiric P = 0.0003).29 In the Beaver Dam Eye Study, a genome-wide scan of 486 pedigrees have identified seven linkage regions, of which the short arm of chromosome 19 showed an empiric multipoint P = 6.1 x 10–5.30 It should be noted that some of these regions are also identified in linkage studies for systemic hypertension.28 30 Further investigations are needed to confirm genetic sharing of IOP and blood pressure.
Our twin sample was enrolled from a population-based twin registry, and therefore selection bias commonly seen in volunteer-based attendance was reduced.31 Zygosity was determined by molecular methods based on genotyping of 16 microsatellite markers, thus minimizing the likelihood of misclassification introduced by zygosity questionnaire. The twins and their co-twins were measured together for IOP so that the measurement error due to IOP fluctuation was minimized. Given that healthy young twins are in general free of systematic and environmental influence on IOP and glaucoma, such as medication use for hypertension and glaucoma, the results may allow more accurate estimation on heritability. However, limitations should be noted as well. Our twins were healthy and aged from 8 to 16 years at the time of IOP measurement, and therefore these heritability estimates could not be directly applied to hypertensive children and adults. Furthermore, the use of the handheld tonometer (Tonopen; Mentor) for IOP measurement may introduce some measurement errors.32
In summary, IOP measured with this tonometer did not correlate with age and sex in the Chinese children. Our study confirmed strong genetic influences of IOP in a Chinese young twin cohort.
| Footnotes |
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Submitted for publication October 30, 2008; revised December 9, 2008; accepted March 24, 2009.
Disclosure: Y. Zheng, None; F. Xiang, None; W. Huang, None; G. Huang, None; Q. Yin, None; M. He, None
The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge payment. This article must therefore be marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C.
1734 solely to indicate this fact.
Corresponding author: Mingguang He, Department of Preventive Ophthalmology, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Guangzhou 510060, Peoples Republic of China; mingguang_he{at}yahoo.com.
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