Genetic and environmental sources of fibrinogen variability in Israeli families : the Kibbutzim family study

Genetic and environmental determinants of plasma fibrinogen were investigated in a sample of 82 kindreds residing in kibbutz settlements in Israel. The sample included 223 males and 229 females ages 15-97 years. Fibrinogen levels were first adjusted for variability in sex and age. There was a significant familial aggregation of adjusted fibrinogen levels, as indicated by inter- and intraclass correlation coefficients significantly different from zero. Commingling analysis implied that in this population a mixture of two normal distributions fit the adjusted fibrinogen levels better than did a single normal distribution. Complex segregation analysis was first applied to these sex- and age-adjusted data. Heterogeneous etiologies for individual differences were suggested. There was evidence for a nontransmitted environmental major factor in addition to polygenic genes that explained the mixture of distributions. In parallel, a single recessive locus with a major effect that explained the adjusted variation in fibrinogen could not be rejected. However, when the regression model for sex and age allowed coefficients to be ousiotype (class)-specific, the recessive genetic model was rejected and the mixed environmental one was not. These results suggested that particular ousiotypes determined by the major environmental factor are associated with a steeper increase of fibrinogen with age. While at the age of 20 years, the major environmental factor contributed 10% to fibrinogen variability, and 48% was explained by polygenic loci, at 80 years of age, the major factor explained 64% and only approximately 20% was explained by polygenic factors.