Corfield Elizabeth C, Martin Nicholas G, Nyholt Dale R
Faculty of Health,Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation,Queensland University of Technology,Brisbane,QLD,Australia.
QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute,Brisbane,QLD,Australia.
Twin Res Hum Genet. 2017 Jun;20(3):208-215. doi: 10.1017/thg.2017.22. Epub 2017 Apr 24.
Familial factors have previously been implicated in the etiology of fatigue, of which a significant proportion is likely attributable to genetic influences. However, family studies have primarily focused on chronic fatigue syndrome, while univariate twin studies have investigated broader fatigue phenotypes. The results for similar fatigue phenotypes vary between studies, particularly with regard to sex-specific contributions to the heritability of the traits. Therefore, the current study aims to investigate the familiality and sex-specific effects of fatigue experienced over the past few weeks in an older Australian population of 660 monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs, 190 MZ singleton twins, 593 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs, and 365 DZ singleton twins. Higher risks for fatigue were observed in MZ compared to DZ co-twins of probands with fatigue. Univariate heritability analyses indicated fatigue has a significant genetic component, with a heritability (h 2) estimate of 40%. Sex-specific effects did not significantly contribute to the heritability of fatigue, with similar estimates for males (h 2 = 41%, 95% CI [18, 62]) and females (h 2 = 40%, 95% CI [27, 52]). These results indicate that fatigue experienced over the past few weeks has a familial contribution, with additive genetic factors playing an important role in its etiology.
家族因素先前已被认为与疲劳的病因有关，其中很大一部分可能归因于遗传影响。然而，家族研究主要集中在慢性疲劳综合征上，而单变量双胞胎研究则调查了更广泛的疲劳表型。不同研究中相似疲劳表型的结果存在差异，尤其是在性状遗传力的性别特异性贡献方面。因此，本研究旨在调查在660对同卵（MZ）双胞胎、190名单胎MZ双胞胎、593对异卵（DZ）双胞胎和365名单胎DZ双胞胎组成的澳大利亚老年人群体中，过去几周所经历疲劳的家族性及性别特异性影响。与患有疲劳的先证者的DZ双胞胎相比，MZ双胞胎出现疲劳的风险更高。单变量遗传力分析表明，疲劳具有显著的遗传成分，遗传力（h²）估计值为40%。性别特异性影响对疲劳的遗传力没有显著贡献，男性（h² = 41%，95% CI [18, 62]）和女性（h² = 40%，95% CI [27, 52]）的估计值相似。这些结果表明，过去几周所经历的疲劳具有家族性影响，加性遗传因素在其病因中起重要作用。
