The genetic aspects of multiple sclerosis.

ABSTRACT: THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS HAS BEEN EXTENSIVELY INVESTIGATED AND TWO FEATURES HAVE CONSISTENTLY EMERGED: marked geographical variation in prevalence and substantial familial clustering. At first sight, geographic variation would seem to imply an environmental cause for the disease, while familial clustering would seem to suggest that genetic factors have the predominant etiological effect. However, given that geographic variation in prevalence could result from variation in the frequency of genetic risk alleles and that familial clustering might result from shared environmental exposure rather than shared genetic risk alleles, it is clear that these crude inferences are unreliable. Epidemiologists have been resourceful in their attempts to resolve this apparent conflict between

SUBMITTER: Sawcer S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2824946 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature