The Relation of Genetic and Environmental Factors to Systemic Inflammatory Biomarker Concentrations

Background— Environmental and genetic correlates of inflammatory marker variability are incompletely understood. In the family-based Framingham Heart Study, we investigated heritability and candidate gene associations of systemic inflammatory biomarkers. Methods and Results— In offspring participants (n=3710), we examined 11 inflammatory biomarkers (CD40 ligand, C-reactive protein, intercellular adhesion molecule-1, interleukin-6, urinary isoprostanes, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, myeloperoxidase, P-selectin, tumor necrosis factor-α, tumor necrosis factor receptor II, fibrinogen). Heritability and bivariate genetic and environmental correlations were assessed by Sequential Oligogenic Linkage Analysis routines in 1012 family members. We examined 1943 tagging single-nucleotide polymorphisms in 233 inflammatory pathway genes with ≥5 minor allele carriers using a general genetic linear model. Clinical correlates explained 2.4% (CD40 ligand) to 28.5% (C-reactive protein) of the variability in inflammato...