Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Twins and the fetal origins hypothesis: An application to growth data

  • Conference paper
Hormones and the Brain

Part of the book series: Research and Perspectives in Endocrine Interactions ((RPEI))

Summary

The Barker hypothesis states that size at birth is negatively associated with disease risk later in life. Numerous studies have tested and confirmed this hypothesis in singletons. Using twin (or sibling) data, several extensions of the Barker hypothesis may be considered:

  1. 1.

    Within pairs, is the smallest twin also the one with the highest disease risk later in life? Since twins (or siblings) come from the same family, this test controls for any shared family effects, such as maternal nutrition, parental education or socio-economic status.

  2. 2.

    A second extension compares associations of differences in size at birth with differences in disease risk in monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs. If associations of difference scores are larger in DZ than in MZ twin pairs, this is taken as evidence that the association is mediated by genetic factors.

  3. 3.

    These two methods can be considered as alternative approaches to the full bivariate analysis of MZ and DZ twin data. Using a bivariate structural equation model, the correlation between two traits can be decomposed into genetic and environmental correlations.

We address some statistical questions regarding the relation of difference scores (within MZ and DZ pairs) and genetic and environmental correlations. We show that the comparison of associations between MZ and DZ difference scores does not necessarily provide clear-cut answers to the question of how the relation of size at birth and later outcome is mediated.

We present an empirical application to data on stature, birth weight and height assessed in a large sample of Dutch adult MZ and DZ twin pairs. There is a significant association between size at birth (both weight and length) and later stature. Within MZ and DZ twin pairs, the largest/heaviest twin at birth is the one who is tallest later in life. Using a bivariate structural equation model, we show that the association of birth length/weight and adult stature is explained by shared genes as well as by correlated common family and unique environmental influences.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Abuzzahab MJ, Schneider A, Goddard A, Grigorescu F, Lautier C, Keller E, Kiess W, Klammt J, Kratzsch J, Osgood D, Pfaffle R, Raile K, Seidel B, Smith RJ, Chernausek SD; Intrauterine Growth Retardation (IUGR) Study Group (2003) IGF-I receptor mutations resulting in intrauterine and postnatal growth retardation. N Engl J Med 349:2211–2222

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Allison DB, Paultre F, Heymsfield SB, Pi-Sunyer FX (1995) Is the intra-uterine period really a critical period for the development of adiposity? Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 19:397–402

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barker DJP (1995) Fetal origins of coronary heart disease. BMJ 311:171–174

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barker DJ (ed) (1998) Mothers, babies and health in later life. Sidcup. Kent: Churchill Livingstone

    Google Scholar 

  • Barker DJ (2002) Fetal programming of coronary heart disease. Trends Endocrinol Metab 13:364–368

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barker DJ (2003) The developmental origins of adult disease. Eur J Epidemiol 18:733–736

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barker DJ, Osmond C, Golding J, Kuh D, Wadsworth ME (1989). Growth in utero, blood pressure in childhood and adult life, and mortality from cardiovascular disease. BMJ 298:564–567

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Boomsma DI, Koopmans JR, Doornen LJP van, Orlebeke JF (1994) Genetic and social influences on starting to smoke: a study of Dutch adolescent twins and their parents, Addiction 89:219–226

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Boomsma DI, Geus EJC de, Baal GCM van, Koopmans JR (1999) Religious upbringing reduces the influence of genetic factors on disinhibition: Evidence for interaction between genotype and environment, Twin Res 2:115–125

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Boomsma DI, Vink JM, van Beijsterveldt TC, de Geus EJ, Beem AL, Mulder EJ, Derks EM, Riese H, Willemsen GA, Bartels M, van den Berg M, Kupper NH, Polderman TJ, Posthuma D, Rietveld MJ, Stubbe JH, Knol LI, Stroet T, van Baal GC (2002a) Netherlands Twin Register: a focus on longitudinal research. Twin Res 5: 401–406

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Boomsma DI, Busjahn A, Peltonen L (2002b) The classical twin study and beyond. Nat Genet Rev 3:872–882

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Doyle D, Leon D, Morton S, de Stavola B (1999) Twins and the fetal origins hypothesis. Patterns of growth retardation differ in twins and singletons. BMJ 319:517–518

    Google Scholar 

  • Eriksson JG, Forsen TJ, Osmond C, Barker DJ (2003) Pathways of infant and childhood growth that lead to type 2 diabetes. Diab Care 26:3006–3010

    Google Scholar 

  • Huxley R, Neil A, Collins R (2002) Unravelling the fetal origins hypothesis: is there really an inverse association between birthweight and subsequent blood pressure? Lancet 360:659–665

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ijzerman RG, Stehouwer CD, Boomsma DI (2000) Evidence for genetic factors explaining the birth weight-blood pressure relation: analysis in twins. Hypertension 36:1008–1012

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ijzerman RG, Stehouwer CDA, Weissenbruch MM van, Geus EJC de, Boomsma DI (2001a) Intra-uterine and genetic influences on the relationship between size at birth and height in later life: analysis in twins. Twin Res 4:337–343

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ijzerman RG, Stehouwer CD, van Weissenbruch MM, de Geus EJ, Boomsma DI (2001b) Evidence for genetic factors explaining the association between birth weight and LDL cholesterol, and possible intrauterine factors influencing the association between birth weight and HDL cholesterol: analysis in twins. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 86:5479–5484

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kendler KS, Eaves LJ (1986) Models for the joint effect of genotype and environment on liability to psychiatric illness. Am J Psychiat 143:279–289

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Martin N, Boomsma D, Machin G. (1997) A twin-pronged attack on complex traits. Nature Genet 17:387–392

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McCarron P, Okasha M, McEwen J, Smith GD (2002) Height in young adulthood and risk of death from cardiorespiratory disease: a prospective study of male former students of Glasgow University, Scotland. Am J Epidemiol 155:683–687

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miura K, Nakagawa H, Tabata M, Morikawa Y, Nishijo M, Kagamimori S (2001) Birth weight, childhood growth, and cardiovascular disease risk factors in Japanese aged 20 years. Am J Epidemiol 153:783–789

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Neale M, Cardon L (1992) Methodology for genetic studies of twins and families. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers

    Google Scholar 

  • Neale MC, Boker SM, Xie G, Maes, HH (2003) Mx: Statistical modeling. 6th Edition. Richmond, VA, Department of Psychiatry

    Google Scholar 

  • Paneth N, Susser M (1995) Early origins of coronary heart disease (the "Barker hypothesis"). BMJ 310:411–412

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips D (2002) Endocrine programming and fetal origins of adult disease. Trends Endocrinol Metab 13:363

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pietilainen KH, Kaprio J, Rasanen M, Winter T, Rissanen A, Rose RJ (2001) Tracking of body size from birth to late adolescence: contributions of birth length, birth weight, duration of gestation, parents’ body size, and twinship. Am J Epidemiol 154:21–29

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pietilainen KH, Kaprio J, Rasanen M, Rissanen A, Rose RJ (2002) Genetic and environmental influences on the tracking of body size from birth to early adulthood. Obes Res 10:875–884

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Plomin, R, DeFries JC, McClearn GE, McGuffin P (2001) Behavioral genetics. 4th Edition. New York: Worth Publishers

    Google Scholar 

  • Rich-Edwards JW, Manson JE, Stampfer MJ, Colditz GA, Willett WC, Rosner B, Speizer FE, Hennekens CH (1995) Height and the risk of cardiovascular disease in women. Am J Epidemiol 142:909–917

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Silventoinen K, Sammalisto S, Perola M, Boomsma DI, Cornes BK, Davis C, Dunkel L, De Lange M, Harris JR, Hjelmborg JV, Luciano M, Martin NG, Mortensen J, Nistico L, Pedersen NL, Skytthe A, Spector TD, Stazi MA, Willemsen G, Kaprio J (2003) Heritability of adult body height: a comparative study of twin cohorts in eight countries. Twin Res 6:399–408

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Song YM, Smith GD, Sung J (2003) Adult height and cause-specific mortality: a large prospective study of South Korean men. Am J Epidemiol 158:479–485

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vaessen N, Janssen JA, Heutink P, Hofman A, Lamberts SW, Oostra BA, Pols HA, van Duijn CM (2002) Association between genetic variation in the gene for insulin-like growth factor-I and low birthweight. Lancet 359:1036–1037

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yarnell JW, Limb ES, Layzell JM, Baker IA (1992) Height: a risk marker for ischaemic heart disease: prospective results from the Caerphilly and Speedwell Heart Disease Studies. Eur Heart J 13:1602–1605

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit, Van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Dorret Boomsma, Gonneke Willemsen, Eco de Geus, Nina Kupper, Danielle Posthuma & Leo Beeml

  2. Vrije Universiteit Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Richard IJzerman

  3. Dept of Molecular Epidemiology, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Bas Heijmans & Eline Slagboom

  4. Dept of Psychology, Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Conor Dolan

Authors
  1. Dorret Boomsma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gonneke Willemsen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Eco de Geus
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Nina Kupper
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Danielle Posthuma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Richard IJzerman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Bas Heijmans
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Eline Slagboom
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Leo Beeml
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Conor Dolan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Necker, 156, Rue de Vaugirad, 75015, Paris, France

    Claude Kordon Ph.D.

  2. Dept. Medecine Interne, Div. Endocrinologie, Centre Hospitaier Universitaire Vadois, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Rolf-Christian Gaillard M.D.

  3. Fondation IPSEN, Pour la Recherche Thérapeutique, 24, rue Erlanger, 75781, Paris Cedex 16, France

    Yves Christen Ph.D.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Boomsma, D. et al. (2005). Twins and the fetal origins hypothesis: An application to growth data. In: Kordon, C., Gaillard, RC., Christen, Y. (eds) Hormones and the Brain. Research and Perspectives in Endocrine Interactions. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-26940-1_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-26940-1_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-21355-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-26940-3

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation