Influence of having a male twin on body mass index and risk for dyslipidemia in middle-aged and old women

Background: Animal experiments suggest that exposure to elevated levels of androgens during development by means of so-called hormonal programming causes metabolic aberrations at adulthood. An indirect strategy to address the possible importance of such an influence also in humans would be to study...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OBESITY Vol. 35; no. 12; pp. 1466 - 1469
Main Authors: Alexanderson, C, Henningsson, S, Lichtenstein, P, Holmäng, A, Eriksson, E
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group 01.12.2011
Nature Publishing Group UK
Subjects:
692/699/2743/2099
692/699/2743/393
692/700/139/1735
Adult
adulthood
Age
Aged
Androgens
Androgens - genetics
Androgens - metabolism
animal experimentation
Anthropometry
Binomial distribution
Biological and medical sciences
Body mass
Body Mass Index
Body Weight
Cohort Studies
Diabetes
Diffusion
Dyslipidemias
Dyslipidemias - epidemiology
Dyslipidemias - etiology
Dyslipidemias - genetics
Dyslipidemias - metabolism
Epidemiology
etiology
Exposure
Female
Females
Fysiologi och anatomi
Genetic aspects
genetics
Gerontology
Health aspects
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
Humans
hyperlipidemia
Hypotheses
Influence
insulin
Internal Medicine
long term effects
Male
males
Medical sciences
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Metabolic Diseases
Metabolic disorders
Metabolism
Middle age
Middle Aged
middle-aged adults
Neurosciences
Obesity
original-article
Physiological aspects
Physiology
Physiology and Anatomy
Programs
Public Health
Receptors, Androgen
Receptors, Androgen - metabolism
risk
Risk Assessment
Self report
Sex Characteristics
Sex Distribution
Strategy
Sweden
Sweden - epidemiology
testosterone
twin
Twins
Twins, Dizygotic
Weight
Women
Sweden
twins
hormonal programming
body mass index
Human
Obesity
Middle age
Nutrition
Nutrition disorder
Programming
Lipids
Metabolic diseases
Male
Risk
Twin
Body mass index
Risk factor
Female
Dyslipemia
Woman
Nutritional status
ISSN:0307-0565, 1476-5497, 1476-5497
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Background: Animal experiments suggest that exposure to elevated levels of androgens during development by means of so-called hormonal programming causes metabolic aberrations at adulthood. An indirect strategy to address the possible importance of such an influence also in humans would be to study female dizygotic twins, presuming that those with a twin brother--due to diffusion of testosterone--have been exposed to higher androgen levels prenatally. Design: We have compared 8409 women with a male twin with 9166 women with a dizygotic female twin with respect to self-reported indices of anthropometry and metabolic aberrations at age 42 or older. Results: Body mass index (BMI), body weight and rate of dyslipidemia were moderately, but significantly, higher in women from opposite-sexed (OS) twin pairs; splitting for age revealed this difference to be present in those 60 years of age only. Conclusion: The results (i) support the notion that comparisons of women with a twin brother with women from same-sexed twin pairs may be used to shed light on possible long-term effects of interindividual variations in early androgen exposure, and (ii) suggest that the effects of early androgen exposure on metabolism previously observed in animal experiments are of relevance also for humans.
Bibliography:http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2011.18
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ISSN:0307-0565
1476-5497
1476-5497
DOI:10.1038/ijo.2011.18