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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A new study reveals men with multiple sclerosis transmit the disease to their children twice as often as women do.
Researchers from the Mayo Clinic, the University of California at San Francisco, the University of California at Berkeley, and Kaiser Permanente studied 441 children who had either a mother or father with MS. They found fathers with MS pass the disease to their children 2.2-times more often than women. The authors theorize men may have a greater "genetic load" of MS genes.
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"The hypothesis of the study is that men are more resistant to MS, so they need stronger or a larger number of genes in order to develop MS and then pass these genes to their children," writes lead author Orhun Kantarci, M.D., Mayo Clinic neurologist.
Kantarci adds neither hormonal differences between men and women nor genes on the sex chromosomes easily explain the findings.
The authors say the results are primarily of interest to scientists studying the mechanisms of genetic transmission and should not change how doctors counsel men with MS about the risk to their offspring.
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
SOURCE: Neurology, 2006;67:305
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