Authors:
Aline Jelenkovic, Aline Jelenkovic, Yoshie Yokoyama, Reijo Sund, Reijo Sund, Yoon-Mi Hur, Jennifer R. Harris, Ingunn Brandt, Thomas Sevenius Nilsen, Syuichi Ooki, Vilhelmina Ullemar, Catarina Almqvist, Catarina Almqvist, Patrik K. E. Magnusson, Kimbe (...)
Aline Jelenkovic, Aline Jelenkovic, Yoshie Yokoyama, Reijo Sund, Reijo Sund, Yoon-Mi Hur, Jennifer R. Harris, Ingunn Brandt, Thomas Sevenius Nilsen, Syuichi Ooki, Vilhelmina Ullemar, Catarina Almqvist, Catarina Almqvist, Patrik K. E. Magnusson, Kimberly J. Saudino, Maria Antonietta Stazi, Corrado Fagnani, Sonia Brescianini, Tracy L. Nelson, Keith E. Whitfield, Ariel Knafo-Noam, David Mankuta, Lior Abramson, Tessa L. Cutler, John L. Hopper, John L. Hopper, Clare H. Llewellyn, Abigail Fisher, Robin P. Corley, Brooke M. Huibregtse, Catherine Derom, Catherine Derom, Robert Vlietinck, Morten Bjerregaard-Andersen, Morten Bjerregaard-Andersen, Morten Bjerregaard-Andersen, Henning Beck-Nielsen, Morten Sodemann, Robert F. Krueger, Matt McGue, Shandell Pahlen, S. Alexandra Burt, Kelly L. Klump, Lise Dubois, Michel Boivin, Michel Boivin, Mara Brendgen, Ginette Dionne, Frank Vitaro, Gonneke Willemsen, Meike Bartels, Catharina E.M. van Beijsterveld, Jeffrey M. Craig, Jeffrey M. Craig, Richard Saffery, Richard Saffery, Finn Rasmussen, Per Tynelius, Kauko Heikkilä, Kirsi H. Pietiläinen, Gombojav Bayasgalan, Danshiitsoodol Narandalai, Claire M. A. Haworth, Robert Plomin, Fuling Ji, Feng Ning, Zengchang Pang, Esther Rebato, Adam Domonkos Tarnoki, David Laszlo Tarnoki, Jina Kim, Jooyeon Lee, Sooji Lee, Joohon Sung, Ruth J. F. Loos, Dorret I. Boomsma, Thorkild I. A. Sørensen, Jaakko Kaprio, Karri Silventoinen, Karri Silventoinen
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Abstract:
Background: There is evidence that birth size is positively associated with height in later life, but it remains unclear whether this is explained by genetic factors or the intrauterine environment. Aim: To analyze the associations of birth weight, length and ponderal index with height from infancy through adulthood within mono- and dizygotic twin pairs, which provides insights into the role of genetic and environmental individual-specific factors. Methods: This study is based on the data from 28 twin cohorts in 17 countries. The pooled data in (...)
Background: There is evidence that birth size is positively associated with height in later life, but it remains unclear whether this is explained by genetic factors or the intrauterine environment. Aim: To analyze the associations of birth weight, length and ponderal index with height from infancy through adulthood within mono- and dizygotic twin pairs, which provides insights into the role of genetic and environmental individual-specific factors. Methods: This study is based on the data from 28 twin cohorts in 17 countries. The pooled data included 41,852 complete twin pairs (55% monozygotic and 45% same-sex dizygotic) with information on birth weight and a total of 112,409 paired height measurements at ages ranging from 1 to 69 years. Birth length was available for 19,881 complete twin pairs, with a total of 72,692 paired height measurements. The association between birth size and later height was analyzed at both the individual and within-pair level by linear regression analyses. Results: Within twin pairs, regression coefficients showed that a 1-kg increase in birth weight and a 1-cm increase in birth length were associated with 1.14-4.25 cm and 0.18-0.90 cm taller height, respectively. The magnitude of the associations was generally greater within dizygotic than within monozygotic twin pairs, and this difference between zygosities was more pronounced for birth length. Conclusion: Both genetic and individual-specific environmental factors play a role in the association between birth size and later height from infancy to adulthood, with a larger role for genetics in the association with birth length than with birth weight. This work was supported by the Academy of Finland (grant number #266592). The Australian Twin Registry is supported by a Centre of Research Excellence (grant ID 1079102) from the National Health and Medical Research Council administered by the University of Melbourne. The Boston University Twin Project is funded by grants (#R01 HD068435 #R01 MH062375) from the National Institutes of Health to K. Saudino. The Carolina African American Twin Study of Aging (CAATSA) was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Aging (grant 1RO1-AG13662-01A2) to K. E. Whitfield. The CATSS-Study is supported by the Swedish Research Council through the Swedish Initiative for Research on Microdata in the Social And Medical Sciences (SIMSAM) framework grant no 340-2013-5867, grants provided by the Stockholm County Council (ALF-projects), the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation and the Swedish Asthma and Allergy Association's Research Foundation. Colorado Twin Registry is funded by NIDA funded center grant DA011015, & Longitudinal Twin Study HD10333; Author Huibregtse is supported by 5T32DA017637 and 5T32AG052371. Since its origin the East Flanders Prospective Survey has been partly supported by grants from the Fund of Scientific Research, Flanders and Twins, a non-profit Association for Scientific Research in Multiple Births (Belgium). Data collection and analyses in Finnish twin cohorts have been supported by ENGAGE - European Network for Genetic and Genomic Epidemiology, FP7-HEALTH-F4-2007, grant agreement number 201413, National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (grants AA-12502, AA-00145, and AA-09203 to R J Rose, the Academy of Finland Center of Excellence in Complex Disease Genetics (grant numbers: 213506, 129680), Centre of Excellence in Research on Mitochondria, Metabolism and Disease (FinMIT, grant 272376), the Academy of Finland (grants 100499, 205585, 118555, 141054, 265240, 263278 and 264146 to J Kaprio and grant 266286 and 314383 to K Pietilainen), the Finnish Diabetes Research Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Helsinki University Central Hospital and University of Helsinki. K Silventoinen is supported by Osaka University's International Joint Research Promotion Program. Gemini was supported by a grant from Cancer Research UK (C1418/A7974). Anthropometric measurements of the Hungarian twins were supported by Medexpert Ltd., Budapest, Hungary. Korean Twin-Family Register was supported by the Global Research Network Program of the National Research Foundation (NRF 2011-220-E00006). Longitudinal Israeli Study of Twins was funded by the Starting Grant no. 240994 from the European Research Council (ERC) to Ariel Knafo. The Michigan State University Twin Registry has been supported by Michigan State University, as well as grants R01-MH081813, R01-MH0820-54, R01-MH092377-02, R21-MH070542-01, R03-MH63851-01 from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), R01-HD066040 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and 11-SPG-2518 from the MSU Foundation. The content of this manuscript is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIMH, the NICHD, or the National Institutes of Health. PETS was supported by grants from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (grant numbers 437015 and 607358 to JC, and RS), the Bonnie Babes Foundation (grant number BBF20704 to JMC), the Financial Markets Foundation for Children (grant no. r 032-2007 to JMC), and by the Victorian Governments Operational Infrastructure Support Program. The Quebec Newborn Twin Study acknowledges financial support from the Fonds Quebecois de la Recherche sur la Societe et la Culture, the Fonds de la Recherche en Sante du Quebec, the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the National Health Research Development Program, the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Sainte-Justine Hospital's Research Center, and the Canada Research Chair Program (Michel Boivin). The Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) is supported by a program grant (MR/M021475/1) from the UK Medical Research Council and the work on obesity in TEDS is supported in part by a grant from the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (31/D19086). The West Japan Twins and Higher Order Multiple Births Registry was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (grant number 15H05105) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Netherlands Twin Register acknowledges the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and MagW/ZonMW grants 904-61-090, 985-10-002, 912-10-020, 904-61-193, 480-04-004, 463-06-001, 451-04-034, 400-05-717, Addiction-31160008, Middelgroot-911-09-032, Spinozapremie 56-464-14192; VU University's Institute for Health and Care Research (EMGO +); the European Research Council (ERC - 230374), the Avera Institute, Sioux Falls, South Dakota (USA).
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