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Twinning and Blood Groups — I. ABO frequencies in twins and controls: immunological considerations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

M. Bolognesi*
Affiliation:
The Gregor Mendel Institute of Medical Genetics and Twin Research, Rome
M. Milani-Comparetti
Affiliation:
The Gregor Mendel Institute of Medical Genetics and Twin Research, Rome
*
Istituto di Genetica Medica e Gemellologia Gregorio Mendel, Piazza Galeno 5, 00161 Roma, Italy

Extract

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Several studies have appeared in the literature to support the hypothesis of a differential incidence of twin births according to the antigenic structure of maternal erythrocytes (Gedda, 1961).

Osborne and DeGeorge (1957) wrote that twin births exhibit a higher incidence when mothers belong to group O, as compared to other groups within the ABO system; a similarly increased incidence of twin births was indicated for rh-negative mothers within the Rh-Hr system.

The availability of a large number of immunohematological data concerning twin pairs and nontwin individuals examined in our Institute have encouraged us to verify whether this material could reveal some a posteriori effect of the selective tendencies that have been related to the parental level.

Limiting our study in this phase to the ABO system, we have collected data on 1190 twin individuals and 1454 nontwin individuals, for all of whom the ABO blood group had been recorded.

The first step in our analysis was the perequation of the nontwin distribution to the twin distribution, obtaining the figures reported in the column “controls” in Tab. I.

Type
Session 13 - Twin Studies and Immunology
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Twin Studies 1970

References

Degeorge, F. V. (1969). An association of Rh type and gynecological disease with twinning. J. Med. Genet., 6: 121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gedda, L. (1961). Twins in History and Science. Charles C Thomas, Springfield.Google Scholar
Mourant, A. E., Kopec, A. C., Domaniewsk, A., Sobczak, K. (1958). The ABO Blood Groups. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford.Google Scholar
Osborne, R. H., Degeorge, F. V. (1957). Selective survival in dizygotic twins in relation to the ABO blood groups. Amer. J. Hum. Genet., 11: 321.Google Scholar
Renkonen, K. O., Timonen, S. (1967). Factors influencing the immunization of Rh-negative mothers. J. Med. Genet., 4: 166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar