Metabolic syndrome-related composite factors over 5 years in the STANISLAS Family Study: Genetic heritability and common environmental influences

Abstract Background We estimated genetic heritability and common environmental influences for various traits related to metabolic syndrome in young families from France. Methods At entrance and after 5 years, nineteen traits related to metabolic syndrome were measured in a sample of families drawn from the STANISLAS study. In addition, 5 aggregates of these traits were identified using factor analysis. Results At entrance, genetic heritability was high (20 to 44%) for plasma lipids and lipoproteins, uric acid, fasting glucose, and the related clusters “risk lipids” and “protective lipids”. Intermediate or low genetic heritability (less than 20%) was shown for triglycerides, adiposity indices, blood pressure, hepatic enzyme activity, inflammatory makers and the related clusters: “liver enzymes”, “adiposity/blood pressure” and “inflammation”. Moreover, common environmental influences were significant for all the parameters. With regard to 5-year changes, polygenic variance was low and not statistically significant for any of the individual variables or clusters whereas shared environment influence was significant. Conclusions In these young families, genetic heritability of metabolic syndrome-related traits was generally lower than previously reported while the common environmental influences were greater. In addition, only shared environment contributed to short-term changes of these traits.