Christian J C
Environ Health Perspect. 1981 Dec;42:103-6. doi: 10.1289/ehp.8142103.
Extrapolation from pharmacogenetic studies would indicate that there is a great deal of genetic variability in the response of humans to noxious environmental agents. Co-twins provide the most closely matched genetic controls possible and, in addition, are matched perfectly for age and often have shared very similar environments since before birth. The efficiency of co-twin control studies can be further increased by the use of sequential analysis, so that for the studies of the effects of environmental agents on human populations, twins would give answers that would require many more unrelated subjects. Use of twins in epidemiology studies is now in its infancy, but investigators should carefully consider the use of this powerful experimental tool and begin to identify twins in population surveys.
药物遗传学研究的推断表明，人类对有害环境因素的反应存在很大的基因变异性。同卵双胞胎提供了尽可能匹配的基因对照，此外，他们年龄完全相同，而且自出生前就常常共享非常相似的环境。通过使用序贯分析可以进一步提高同卵双胞胎对照研究的效率，因此对于环境因素对人群影响的研究，双胞胎能给出的答案，若采用许多不相关的受试者则需要更多的样本。双胞胎在流行病学研究中的应用目前尚处于起步阶段，但研究人员应仔细考虑使用这一强大的实验工具，并开始在人群调查中识别双胞胎。
