Heritability Analysis Of Metabolic Syndrome Indices For Adult Twins In Qingdao City

Objective: To discuss the extent that inheritance impacts on metabolic syndrome indices, which include body mass index(BMI), waist-to-hip ratio(WHR), fasting plasma glucose(FPG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C), systolic blood pressure(SBP) and diastolic blood pressure(DBP).Methods: Based on zygosity identification, the heritability of metabolic syndrome indices were studied for 496 pairs of twins, aged no less than 24 years old, who were voluntary to participate in this study. SPSS and Mx software package were used as the statistical methods to build structural equation models.Results: The heritability estimated for BMI is 76%,which is 33% and 74% for males and females respectively. For WHR,the heritability is 68%, 0.10% and 55% respectively for males and females. For FPG, the heritability is 39%,52% and 60% respectively for males and females. For HDL-C, the heritability is 78%, 43% and 80% respectively for males and females. The heritability estimated for SBP and DBP is 34% and 33%, both of which are the same for males and females.Conclusion: Among the indices of metabolic syndromes, BMI, WHR, FPG and HDL-C are influenced mostly by inheritance. For females, BMI, WHR, FPG and HDL-C are mostly influenced by inheritance. For males, however, all indices are influenced by environmental factors and WHR is nearly little influenced by inheritance. SBP and DBP, however, are influenced mostly by environmental factors and both of them have no difference between males and females.