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Different numbers of maternal and paternal siblings of cystic fibrosis patients

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Summary

When 458 parents of children suffering from cystic fibrosis (CF) from all over the German Democratic Republic were interviewed to determine the number of their siblings, it was found that the maternal families had a total of 1369 children and the paternal, 1220. While the fathers of CF patients tended to originate from families with one or two children, more mothers than fathers came from families with three to twelve children (P=0.01). The average number of children in the maternal families was 2.99; in the paternal families, only 2.66. To rule out any methodological errors, sibs of mothers and fathers of various control groups were studied. We found that the number of siblings in these groups was balanced. The differences in our findings are probably due to CF heterozygosity. The underlying mechanism is unknown.

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References

  • Gedschold J, Kropf S, Szibor R, Berger M (1987) Cystic fibrosis — a single locus disease? Results of a population genetics study. Hum Genet 75:277–280

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Abteilung Humangenetik, Klinik für Kinderheilkunde, Leipziger Strasse 44, DDR-3090, Magdeburg, German Democratic Republic

    Jürgen Gedschold, Reinhard Szibor & Margot Berger

  2. Abteilung für Biomathematik, Medizinische Akademie Magdeburg, Leipziger Strasse 44, DDR-3090, Magdeburg, German Democratic Republic

    Siegfried Kropf

Authors
  1. Jürgen Gedschold
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  2. Reinhard Szibor
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  3. Siegfried Kropf
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  4. Margot Berger
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Gedschold, J., Szibor, R., Kropf, S. et al. Different numbers of maternal and paternal siblings of cystic fibrosis patients. Hum Genet 80, 399–400 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00273662

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00273662

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