Jepson A, Banya W, Hassan-King M, Sisay F, Bennett S, Whittle H
Medical Research Council Laboratories, Fajara, The Gambia, West Africa.
Ann Trop Paediatr. 1994;14(4):309-13. doi: 10.1080/02724936.1994.11747734.
It has been demonstrated that physical growth characteristics are subject to genetic regulation. However, in developing countries, environmental factors such as food availability and frequent infections are associated with growth faltering which is particularly marked in infancy. We have conducted anthropometric measurements of a cohort of twin children aged less than 14 years living in a rural area of The Gambia to ascertain the extent to which genetic factors influence physical growth in the presence of a sub-optimal diet. Almost 25% of the children were more than 2SD below the median of the reference population in terms of their height-for-age Z score, indicating a marked level of undernutrition. Nevertheless, the within-pair variances were significantly less for monozygous than for dizygous twin pairs for the following variables: height, head circumference and body mass index (p < 0.01); weight (p < 0.02) and mid upper arm circumference (p < 0.1), indicating that there is a strong genetic influence on growth regulation despite the sub-optimal nutrition.
业已证明，身体生长特征受遗传调控。然而，在发展中国家，诸如食物供应和频繁感染等环境因素与生长发育迟缓有关，这在婴儿期尤为明显。我们对冈比亚农村地区一群14岁以下的双胞胎儿童进行了人体测量，以确定在饮食欠佳的情况下遗传因素对身体生长的影响程度。近25%的儿童年龄别身高Z评分比参考人群中位数低2个标准差以上，表明存在明显程度的营养不良。尽管如此，对于以下变量，同卵双胞胎对内差异显著小于异卵双胞胎对：身高、头围和体重指数（p<0.01）；体重（p<0.02）和上臂中部周长（p<0.1），这表明尽管营养欠佳，但生长调节仍受强烈的遗传影响。
