IJERPH, Vol. 16, Pages 3732: Toxoplasma gondii Serointensity and Seropositivity: Heritability and Household-Related Associations in the Old Order Amish

IJERPH, Vol. 16, Pages 3732: Toxoplasma gondii Serointensity and Seropositivity: Heritability and Household-Related Associations in the Old Order Amish International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health doi: 10.3390/ijerph16193732 Authors: Allyson R. Duffy Jeffrey R. O’Connell Mary Pavlovich Kathleen A. Ryan Christopher A. Lowry Melanie Daue Uttam K. Raheja Lisa A. Brenner André O. Markon Cecile M. Punzalan Aline Dagdag Dolores E. Hill Toni I. Pollin Andreas Seyfang Maureen W. Groer Braxton D. Mitchell Teodor T. Postolache Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is an intracellular parasite infecting one third of the world’s population. Latent T. gondii infection has been associated with mental illness, including schizophrenia and suicidal behavior. T. gondii IgG antibody titers were measured via ELISA. The heritability of T. gondii IgG was estimated using a mixed model that included fixed effects for age and sex and random kinship effect. Of 2017 Old Order Amish participants, 1098 had positive titers (54.4%). The heritability for T. gondii serointensity was estimated to be 0.22 (p = 1.7 × 10−8 and for seropositivity, it was estimated to be 0.28 (p = 1.9 × 10−5). Shared household environmental effects (i.e., household effects) were also determined. Household effects, modeled as a random variable, were assessed as the phenotypic covariance between any two indiv...
Source: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research