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Rheumatology Advance Access originally published online on January 19, 2009
Rheumatology 2009 48(3):277-280; doi:10.1093/rheumatology/ken475
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© 2008 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The genetic influence on radiographic osteoarthritis is site specific at the hand, hip and knee

A. J. MacGregor1,2, Q. Li1, T. D. Spector2 and F. M. K. Williams2

1School of Medicine, University of East Anglia, Norwich and 2Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King's College London, London, UK.

Correspondence to: A. J. MacGregor, School of Medicine, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK. E-mail: a.macgregor{at}uea.ac.uk


  Abstract

Objective. To identify whether a shared genetic influence accounts for the occurrence of OA at different skeletal sites.

Methods. Multivariate modelling of data on prevalent radiographic OA at the hand (DIP, PIP and CMC joints), hip and knee joints assessed in 992 monozygotic and dizygotic female twin participants from the TwinsUK Registry.

Results. OA at all the five joint sites was heritable. Genetic influences were strongly correlated among joints in the hand; however, there was little evidence of common genetic pathways to account for the co-occurrence of OA at the hand, hip and knee.

Conclusions. While genetic influences are important in explaining the variation in occurrence of OA at the hand, hip and knee, there is no evidence that common or shared genetic factors determine the occurrence of disease across all these skeletal sites. The findings suggest that there are important aetiological differences in the disease that are site-specific in women. These results have implications for the design of studies examining the genetic basis of OA as well as for strategies aimed at preventing and treating the disease.

KEY WORDS: Osteoarthritis, Site, Twin, Hand, Hip, Knee, Structural equation modelling, Genetic linkage, Genetic association

Submitted 16 October 2008; revised version accepted 24 November 2008.
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