Magnetic resonance imaging of the masseter muscle: a preliminary genetic study in monozygotic and dizygotic twins.

Magnetic resonance images of the head were taken in five monozygotic and seven dizygotic twins in order to calculate bilaterally masseter muscle cross-sectional areas and total volume. Comparing correlation coefficients between cotwins, genetic influences could be expected for maximal cross-sectional area but not for volume measurements. Model fitting revealed that additive genetic factors explained 93.9% of the variance for the left and 82.4% for the right maximal masseter muscle cross-sections. It is anticipated that while the number of masseter muscle fibers is under strong genetic control, the length of individual fibers can be influenced by specific environmental factors. In the second part of the investigation, cephalometric measurements from lateral headplates were compared with these masseter muscle values in 10 twin pairs. Only three of the 15 angular and five (three vertical, one transversal, and one sagittal measurement) of the 20 linear measurements were significantly correlated with masseter muscle values.