Genes, environment, and susceptibility to multiple sclerosis

Study of polymorphisms in the interleukin-4 and IL-4 receptor genes in a population of Brazilian patients with multiple sclerosis

“…Brazilian Although the numbers of patients and controls included in this case-control study were low, the genotype frequencies of healthy control subjects are representative of the general Brazilian population of the southeast. It is conceivable that lack of association of IL4 +33 (C to T) and IL4R (T to C) polymorphisms may reflect genetic heterogeneity in the pathogenesis of the disease among different ethnicities or to difference on the type/amount of exposure to environmental factors 4,11 . The data show that neither IL4 nor IL4R genes are susceptibility factors for MS but may be able to modify ethnicity-dependent disease risk and penetrance of susceptibility factors.…”

“…Predisposition to MS is influenced by a complex, yet unclear interaction of genetic and environmental factors. Although HLA and especially the allele DQB1*0602 contribute to the overall susceptibility in different ethnic groups and especially Caucasians, other MHC and non-MHC genes with individually epistatic effect may influence demographic characteristic, clinical form and severity of the disease [2][3][4] . Microarray experiments using tissue from MS lesions have shown the association of several cytokines with central nervous system (CNS) inflammation 5,6 .…”

Seasonal fluctuation of multiple sclerosis births in Sardinia

“…Intensive research over decades has led to the identification of convincingly strong non-Mendelian multigenic interactions in MS susceptibility [6]. However, circumstantially good reasons such as the seasonality of MS-related events [12] also suggest MS to be influenced by environmental factors and the term "multifactorial" best fits with the definition of the enigmatic aetiology of the disease [31].…”

Resistance to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis development in Lewis rats from a conventional animal facility

“…The clinical course of MBP-induced EAE in the Lewis rat is an acute ascending paralysis, that is monophasic and self-limiting, making it an ideal model to study the regulatory events that lead to recovery from autoimmune diseases (Swanborg 1995). MS and EAE development are clearly affected by different factors as gender (Papenfuss et al 2004), age (Ditamo et al 2005), and also by genetic and environmental conditions (Sotgiu et al 2004). The hygiene hypothesis has been proposed to explain the increased incidence of autoimmune diseases and allergy in areas of the world with improved health care and sanitation.…”