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No paternal effect on monozygotic twinning in the Swedish Twin Registry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2012

Paul Lichtenstein ,
Bengt Källén  and
Max Köster
Paul Lichtenstein*
Affiliation:
Institute for Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm. [email protected]
Bengt Källén
Affiliation:
Tornblad Institute, University of Lund, Lund.
Max Köster
Affiliation:
Epidemiological Center, National Board of Health, Stockholm, Sweden.
*
*Correspondence: Dr Paul Lichtenstein, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Box 210, S-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden. Tel: + 46 8 728 74 24; Fax: + 46 8 30 45 71

Abstract

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Previous research has provided evidence for a genetic effect in monozygotic twinning, indicated by an increased risk for monozygotic women to have monozygotic offspring. However, since the biological mechanism for this trait is unknown, it is not clear if there exists a paternal inheritance. In this study we investigated twin pregnancies in offspring born in 1941–1996 to male twins in the Swedish Twin Registry and population controls born in 1926–1980. In total 4 225 331 offspring, of which 89 286 were twins, were studied. There was neither an increase in the probability for monozygotic men to have like-sexed twin offspring risk ratio (RR = 0.95; 95% CI = 0.77–1.13) nor an increase in the estimated number of monozygotic twin births. Thus, there is no evidence for a paternal effect on monozygotic twinning, suggesting that the gene(s) increasing the liability for division of the embryo are expressed in the mother and not in the fertilised egg.

Keywords

monozygotic twinsmultiple pregnancyrisk estimategeneticspaternal inheritance
Type
Articles
Information
Twin Research and Human Genetics , Volume 1 , Issue 4 , 01 August 1998 , pp. 212 - 215
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998