Article

Heritability of calcaneal quantitative ultrasound measures in healthy adults from the Fels Longitudinal Study.

Lifespan Health Research Center, Wright State University School of Medicine, Dayton, OH 45420, USA.
Bone (impact factor: 4.02). 12/2004; 35(5):1157-63. DOI:10.1016/j.bone.2004.07.007 pp.1157-63
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT Quantitative ultrasound (QUS) measurements of bone have been reported to predict osteoporotic fracture risk in postmenopausal women and older men. Although many studies have examined the heritability of bone mineral density (BMD), few studies have estimated the heritability of calcaneal QUS phenotypes. In the present study, we examined the genetic regulation of calcaneal QUS parameters in individuals from nuclear and extended families. The study population includes 260 men and 295 women aged 18-91 years (mean+/-SD: 46+/-16 years) who belong to 111 pedigrees in the Fels Longitudinal Study. Three measures of calcaneal structure were collected from both the right and left heel using the Sahara bone sonometer. These measures included broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA), speed of sound (SOS), and the quantitative ultrasound index (QUI). We used a variance components based maximum likelihood method to estimate the heritability of QUS parameters while simultaneously adjusting for covariate effects. Additionally, we used bivariate extensions of these methods to calculate additive genetic and random environmental correlations among QUS measures. All phenotypes demonstrated statistically significant heritabilities (P<0.0000001). Heritabilities in the right heel (h2+/-SE) were h2=0.59+/-0.10 for BUA, h2=0.73+/-0.09 for SOS, and h2=0.72+/-0.09 for QUI. Similarly, heritabilities for the left heel were h2=0.52+/-0.10, h2=0.75+/-0.10, and h2=0.70+/0.10, respectively. There was evidence for significant genetic and environmental correlations among these six QUS measures. Combinations of QUS measures in the right and left heel demonstrated genetic correlations of 0.94-0.99 and all were significantly different from one indicating at least a partially unique genetic architecture for each of these measures. This study demonstrates that QUS measures of the calcaneus among healthy men and women are heritable, and there are large shared additive genetic effects among all of the traits examined.

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Keywords

additive genetic effects
 
bivariate extensions
 
bone mineral density
 
broadband ultrasound attenuation
 
calcaneal QUS parameters
 
calculate additive genetic
 
covariate effects
 
genetic regulation
 
healthy men
 
left heel
 
maximum likelihood method
 
older men
 
osteoporotic fracture risk
 
quantitative ultrasound index
 
QUS parameters
 
Sahara bone sonometer
 
significant genetic
 
study population
 
unique genetic architecture
 
variance components
 

Miryoung Lee