The objective of the study was to test the hypothesis that changes in arm anthropometry can be used to determine the risk of faltering growth in twin gestations. Serial data on midupper arm circumference (MUAC) and maternal weight gain were collected from a sample of 156 mothers. Changes in MUAC were monitored from 20 to 34 weeks. Women with a large loss of MUAC (greater than 1.5 cm), particularly when it occurred within two to four weeks of delivery, were significantly heavier, had higher pregravid Body Mass Indexes (BMIs), but gained less weight than mothers with no change in MUAC. In analysis of covariance models adjusting for length of gestation, black ethnicity, males per twin pair, monochorionicity, and baseline MUAC at 20 weeks, a large loss of MUAC was associated with significantly lower birthweight (2263 g vs. 2499 g) and birthweight z-score (–0.92 SDU vs. –0.39 SDU). Changes in MUAC from 20 to 34 weeks, and especially near delivery, are significantly associated with fetal growth in twin pregnancies. A positive change may indicate that the mother has adequate dietary intake or nutrient stores to continue to accrue lean body mass and support fetal growth, while a loss of MUAC indicates that dietary intake or nutrient stores may be inadequate. This simple, relatively precise, measure of change in maternal body composition during pregnancy may be useful in identifying twin pregnancies at risk for faltering intrauterine growth, particularly among overweight or obese women.

The purpose of this study is to compare obstetric and birthweight data of twin children from the two largest databases in Japan to estimate the difference between them in sample collection. The first group consisted of 1131 twin-pair school applicants, and the second group consisted of members' children from several maternal associations devoted to twins and included 951 pairs. All data were gathered by questionnaire. The mean birth years of the twins in these two databases were 1979 and 1995 respectively. The percentage of mothers treated with ovulation-stimulating drugs or in-vitro fertilization was markedly higher in the maternal associations group. Gestational age was around 1 week less in the maternal associations group, whereas birthweight according to gestational weeks and intrapair relative birth weight difference as a percentage according to zygosity showed little difference between both groups. We conclude that the obstetric and birthweight feature data from both groups should be considered to construct twin growth charts based on the methods of sample selection.

Genotyping in DNA pools reduces the cost and the time required to complete large genotyping projects. The aim of the present study was to evaluate pooling as part of a strategy for fine mapping in regions of significant linkage. Thirty-nine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were analyzed in two genomic DNA pools of 384 individuals each and results compared with data after typing all individuals used in the pools. There were no significant differences using data from either 2 or 8 heterozygous individuals to correct frequency estimates for unequal allelic amplification. After correction, the mean difference between estimates from the genomic pool and individual allele frequencies was .033. A major limitation of the use of DNA pools is the time and effort required to carefully adjust the concentration of each individual DNA sample before mixing aliquots. Pools were also constructed by combining DNA after Multiple Displacement Amplification (MDA). The MDA pools gave similar results to pools constructed after careful DNA quantitation (mean difference from individual genotyping .040) and MDA provides a rapid method to generate pools suitable for some applications. Pools provide a rapid and cost-effective screen to eliminate SNPs that are not polymorphic in a test population and can detect minor allele frequencies as low as 1% in the pooled samples. With current levels of accuracy, pooling is best suited to an initial screen in the SNP validation process that can provide high-throughput comparisons between cases and controls to priori- tize SNPs for subsequent individual genotyping.

The association between high and low levels of emotional reactivity (ER) as a temperamental trait and the dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) exon III polymorphism in healthy men aged 18 to 27 (M= 21.03, SD = 2.23) was examined. ER, measured by the Formal Characteristics of Behavior–Temperament Inventory (FCB-TI), is defined as a tendency to react intensively to emotion-generating stimuli and is expressed in high emotional sensitivity and in low emotional endurance. Data analysis demonstrated a statistically significant difference in the distribution of genotypic frequencies between the low and high ER groups: χ2 = 4.88; df = 1; p = .027, odds ratio (OR) =2.85, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.11–7.32. An insignificant difference in allele frequencies between the two groups was noted: χ2 = 7.47; df = 3; p = .058; OR = 2.9, 95% CI = 1.29–6.53. These findings suggest a role of the DRD4 exon III polymorphism in the modulation of ER as a temperamental trait. Due to the preliminary nature of our findings, replication is necessary.

Sweden has, as a whole nation, the oldest continuous population register of births, including twin and higher multiple maternities, starting in the 17th century. Until the 1920s, the rates of multiple maternities in Sweden were among the highest known among Europeans. Strong secular and regional fluctuations were noted. Some of the eastern counties showed especially marked decreasing trends. The twinning rate had no clear associations with the anthropometric and serological data. In this paper we study the temporal and regional variations of the twinning rate in the 25 counties of Sweden from 1751 to 1960. Different statistical methods were applied in order to test the hypothesis that, irrespective of the initial levels, the twinning rates for the counties converge towards a common low level. We present and interpret a geometrical model for the trends of the regional twinning rates. We also analyze the regional heterogeneity using the ranges and the coefficients of variation of the regional twinning rates. All the methods gave consistent results, supporting our convergence hypothesis that the regional differences in the twinning rate are gradually disappearing. In addition, this study supports our earlier findings that the regional heterogeneity cannot be explained by differences in the distribution of maternal age and parity. We suggest that the convergence may be caused by increased urbanization and industrialization and by the increased interregional migration of citizens as a consequence of better communications, which lead to the breaking up of isolates and decreased endogamy.

Maternal age is the most important nongenetic factor influencing the twinning rate. Every study of the effect of other factors should consider the age distribution of the mothers. Besides standardizing techniques, the age-specific twinning rates are analyzed. Especially, the slope of the regression line is considered when the age-specific twinning rates are regressed against maternal age. How well the maximum age-specific twinning rate measures the variation in the maternal age effect is also studied. The two measures, which are strongly correlated, give consistent results. The proposed methods are applied to data from Finland (1866 to 2003) and Denmark (1855 to 2000). Comparisons with Sweden (1861 to 2000) and Norway (1855 to 2003) are also made. In general, marked decreasing trends in the twinning rates are discernible up to the middle of the 20th century. In Sweden the decline starts around the beginning of the 20th century and is stronger than in Denmark and Norway. The decrease in the twinning rate for Finland, which up to World War II was rather isolated, sets in around the middle of the 20th century and is not as strong as in other Nordic countries. After the minima around 1980, strong increasing trends are noted. This is mainly caused by the influence of the artificial reproduction technologies and particularly the use of fertility-enhancing drugs on the commonly noted dependence between maternal age and the twinning rate. Similar temporal trends can be observed in the slopes of the regression line and in the maximum age-specific twinning rates.

Increased prenatal exposure to testosterone (T) in females of an opposite-sex (OS) twin pair may have an effect on the development of sex-typical cognitive and behavioral patterns. The prenatal exposure to T due to hormone transfer in OS twin females may occur in two ways, one directly via the feto–fetal transfer route within the uterus, the other indirectly through maternal–fetal transfer and based in the maternal–fetal compartment. Although some studies in singletons indeed found that women pregnant with a male fetus have higher T levels during gestation than women pregnant with a female fetus, many other studies could not find any relation between the sex of the fetus and maternal serum steroid levels. Therefore at present it is unclear whether a pregnant woman bearing a male has higher levels of T than a woman bearing a female. Up to this point, no-one has investigated this issue in twin pregnancies. We examined the relationship between maternal serum steroid levels and sex of fetus in 17 female–female, 9 male–male and 29 OS twin pregnancies. No differences were observed between the maternal serum steroid levels of women expecting single-sex and mixed-sex offspring. It is concluded that the source of prenatal T exposure in females probably comes from the fetal unit, which is the direct route of fetal hormone transfer.

The National Academy of Sciences — National Research Council (NAS-NRC) twin panel, created nearly 50 years ago, had twin zygosity determined primarily via a similarity questionnaire that has been estimated to correctly classify at least 95% of twins. In the course of a study on the genetics of healthy ageing in the NAS-NRC twins, DNA was collected for genome-wide scanning and zygosity confirmation was examined in 343 participating pairs. The sample was supplemented from two other studies using NAS-NRC twins where one or both co-twins were suspected to have Alzheimer disease or another dementia, or Parkinson's disease. Overall 578 twin pairs with DNA were analyzed. Zygosity assignment for 96.8% (519/536) was confirmed via questionnaire. Among 42 pairs whose questionnaire responses were inconclusive for assigning zygosity, 50% were found to be monozygous (MZ) and 50% were dizygous (DZ). There was some evidence for greater misclassification of presumed DZ pairs in the healthy ageing study where participation favored pairs who were similar in having a favorable health history and willingness to volunteer without any element of perceived risk for a specific disease influencing participation.

While preterm birth and restricted fetal growth are strongly associated with infant mortality, the extent to which these associations are modified by placental abruption remains unknown. A retrospective cohort study was carried out to examine the risk of infant mortality among twins in relation to abruption, and explore the independent contributions of preterm birth and restricted fetal growth to these associations. The study was restricted to women who had delivered twins at 22 weeks' gestation or more and fetuses weighing 500 grams or more in the United States (1989–2000). Risks of preterm birth (less than 37 weeks' gestation), fetal growth restriction and infant mortality, in relation to placental abruption, were evaluated. All analyses were adjusted for potential sociodemographic confounding factors. The association between restricted twin fetal growth and abruption was the strongest among the most severely growth-restricted babies (i.e., less than 1 centile), with the strength of association diminishing with increasing birthweight centiles. The risk of preterm birth among pregnancies with and without abruption were 80.1% and 51.9%, respectively (relative risk [RR] 1.5, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.4–1.6). The risk of small-for-gestational-age (SGA; birthweight of less than the 10th centile for gestational age) among abruption and nonabruption births was 11.7% and 9.2%, respectively (RR 1.3, 95% CI 1.2–1.4). Compared with twins of the appropriate growth delivered at term, the relative risks for infant mortality in the presence of abruption were 9.9 (95% CI 5.4–18.2) for term-SGA, 25.0 (95% CI 22.3–28.1) for preterm-non-SGA, and 36.2 (95% CI 28.4–46.1) for preterm-SGA births. The association between infant mortality and abruption among twins appears largely mediated through preterm birth, and to a lesser extent, through SGA. The association between fetal growth and abruption is strongest among the severely growth-restricted babies, suggesting that the origins of placental abruption may develop in early pregnancy.

The purpose of this study was to clarify the genetic contribution to stuttering and tics in childhood using the largest databases of Japanese twins. The subjects were 1896 pairs of twin children consisting of 1849 males and 1943 females with a mean age of 11.6 years (3 years to 15 years). All data were gathered by questionnaire. The prevalence of stuttering was 6.7% in males and 3.6% in females (p < .0001). The prevalence of tics was 6.8% in males and 4.1% in females (p = .0021). Concordance rates and polychoric correlations were all higher in monozygotic pairs than in dizygotic pairs irrespective of sex combination. Structural equation modeling showed that the proportion of total phenotypic variance attributable to genetic influences was 80% in males and 85% in females for stuttering, and 28% in males and 29% in females for tics. Moreover, co-occurrence between stuttering and tics was observed in 0.8% of males (tetrachoric correlation: r = .18) and 0.5% of females (r = .31), which was attributed partly (nearly 10% of total genetic variance of each trait) to the common genetic factors, with genetic correlation of r = .32.

This month's News, Views and Comments column differs from those that have appeared in previous issues. The first of the companion papers presented here offers the first in-depth historical overview of Dr. Peter Neubauer's controversial study of infant identical twins separated at birth, launched in the 1950s. The author, Dr. Lawrence Perlman, was a research assistant on the project while earning his doctoral degree in clinical psychology from New York University. His paper is followed by my own critical appraisal of issues raised by that study, some of which are still timely today. Readers are invited to forward their comments to me ([email protected]) for possible consideration in future columns of Twin Research and Human Genetics.

Birthweight has implications for physical and mental health in later life. Using data from Caucasian twins collected in Australia, the Netherlands and the United States, and from East Asian twins collected in Japan and South Korea, we compared the total phenotypic, genetic and environmental variances of birthweight between Caucasians and East Asians. Model-fitting analyses yielded four major findings. First, for both males and females, the total phenotypic variances of birthweight were about 45% larger in Caucasians than in East Asians. The larger phenotypic variances were mainly attributable to a greater shared environmental variance of birth- weight in Caucasians (ranging from 62% to 67% of variance) than Asians (48% to 53%). Second, the genetic variance of birthweight was equal in Caucasians and East Asians for both males and females, explaining a maximum of 17% of variance. Third, small variations in total phenotypic variances of birthweight within Caucasians and within East Asians were mainly due to differences in nonshared environmental variances. We speculate that maternal effects (both genetic and environmental) explain the large shared environmental variance in birthweight and may account for the differences in phenotypic variance in birthweight between Caucasians and East Asians. Recent molecular findings and specific environmental factors that are subsumed by maternal effects are discussed.

The present study investigates the twinning rate trends in South Korea for the years 1981 to 2002 utilizing the birth record data from the South Korea National Statistical Office. The twinning rates between 1981 and 1991 remained nearly constant and were slightly less than 10 twin individuals, that is, approximately five pairs per thousand births. Since the early 1990s, however, the twinning rate has increased sharply and reached 19.30 twin individuals, that is, around 10 pairs per thousand births in the year 2002. Application of the Weinberg method to birth data for the years 2000 to 2002 revealed that the dizygotic twin rate in South Korea increased almost threefold between 1981 to 1991 and 2002. In the 1980s the effect of maternal age on twinning rates appeared to be minimal. In the 1990s, however, increases in twinning rates occurred more markedly among older mothers than among younger mothers. We speculate that the rapid rise in twinning rates in South Korea in the 1990s is probably attributable to the spread of Assisted Reproductive Technologies among older mothers who seek treatments for infertility. The present study also examined whether residing in industrial areas is associated with multiple births in the South Korean population. The results did not support the recent finding of higher twinning incidence in industrialized regions.

The objective of this study was to compare length of gestation, fetal growth, and birthweight by race/ethnicity and pregravid weight groups in twin pregnancies. Three thousand and thirty-six twin pregnancies of 28 weeks or more gestation were divided by race/ethnicity (White, Black and Hispanic), and pregravid body mass index (BMI) groups (less than 25.0 vs. 25.0 or more). Outcomes were modeled using multiple regression, controlling for confounders, with White non-Hispanic women as the reference group. Hispanic women had the highest average birthweight and the longest gestation, as well as the lowest proportions of low birthweight, very low birthweight, preterm and early preterm births of the 3 race/ethnicity groups. In the multivariate analyses, Hispanic women had significantly longer gestations (by 7.8 days) and faster rates of fetal growth midgestation (20 to 28 weeks, by 17.4 g/week) and late gestation (after 28 weeks, by 5.3 g/week), whereas Black women had significantly slower rates of fetal growth (by 5.7 g/week and by 4.5 g/week, respectively). These findings in twins reflect the racial and ethnic disparities previously shown in singletons, including the Hispanic paradox of longer gestations and higher rates of fetal growth.

Chimeras, individuals whose genetically distinct cell lines originated from different zygotes, are attracting attention among twin researchers. This is because chimerism may occur more frequently than previously suspected, having been observed among 8% of dizygotic (DZ) twins and 21% of DZ triplets. The presence of separate cell lines in these twins may hold clues to disease susceptibility, developmental complications and histocompatibility features. Next, new twin research on physical development is offering fresh insights on height and hormones, height and education, and pelvic development. Finally, twins having twins, twins deserting the military and twins composing music raise new thoughts about reproduction, behavior and talent.

The amount of available DNA is often a limiting factor in pursuing genetic analyses of large-scale population cohorts. An association between higher DNA yield from blood and several phenotypes associated with inflammatory states has recently been demonstrated, suggesting that exclusion of samples with very low DNA yield may lead to biased results in statistical analyses. Whole genome amplification (WGA) could present a solution to the DNA concentration-dependent sample selection. The aim was to thoroughly assess WGA for samples with low DNA yield, using the multiply-primed rolling circle amplification method. Fifty-nine samples were selected with the lowest DNA yield (less than 7.5µg) among 799 samples obtained for one population cohort. The genotypes obtained from two replicate WGA samples and the original genomic DNA were compared by typing 24 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Multiple genotype discrepancies were identified for 13 of the 59 samples. The largest portion of discrepancies was due to allele dropout in heterozygous genotypes in WGA samples. Pooling the WGA DNA replicates prior to genotyping markedly improved genotyping reproducibility for the samples, with only 7 discrepancies identified in 4 samples. The nature of discrepancies was mostly homozygote genotypes in the genomic DNA and heterozygote genotypes in the WGA sample, suggesting possible allele dropout in the genomic DNA sample due to very low amounts of DNA template. Thus, WGA is applicable for low DNA yield samples, especially if using pooled WGA samples. A higher rate of genotyping errors requires that increased attention be paid to genotyping quality control, and caution when interpreting results.

The purpose of this study was to examine the genetic contribution to handedness and footedness in childhood using one of the largest available databases of Japanese twins. The participants were 1131 twin pairs, 1057 males and 1205 females, of 11 or 12 years of age (6th grade of secondary school in the Japanese education system). All data were gathered by questionnaire. The prevalence of left (nonright) handedness was 15% in males and 13% in females. The prevalence of left (nonright) footedness was 13% in males and 11% in females. The similarities between twin pairs, estimated by concordance rates and tetrachoric correlations, suggested a slight genetic effect on male handedness, no genetic effect on female handedness, and no genetic effect on footedness in either sex. Structural equation modeling showed small genetic factors (11%) in male handedness and no genetic factors in female handedness. As to footedness, no genetic factors were observed in either sex. The effects of nonshared environmental factors were large (85%) in males and moderate (44%) in females. Moreover, handedness and footedness tended to be concordant irrespective of sex, with polychoric correlations over r = .70. The results of bivariate genetic analyses were not necessarily satisfactory. For males, no model fit. For females, shared and nonshared environmental factors explained the concordance of handedness and footedness. It was concluded that the genetic effects on handedness and footedness are relatively small, as is their association; moreover, considerably large twin samples are needed to obtain stable and appropriate results.

The aims of this study were to identify factors associated with birthweight, birth length and head circumference for triplets, and analyze these body size parameters at birth, especially head circumference, according to gestational age. The subjects of this study were 370 mothers and their 1109 triplet children (excluding one stillborn infant) who were born between 1978 and 2002. The gestational age proved to be the strongest contributing factor to birthweight, birth length and head circumference of the triplets. Moreover, sex was a significant factor affecting birthweight, birth length and head circumference. Male neonates had a higher birthweight, longer birth length and greater head circumference than female neonates. Birth order in triplets also had a significant effect on birthweight and head circumference. Lower birth- order neonates had a higher birthweight and greater head circumference. An effect of maternal pregravid body mass index (BMI) on both birth- weight and birth length was observed. The birthweights of triplets born to women whose pregravid BMIs were more than 26.0 kg/m2 weighed an average of 150 g more than those of triplets born to women whose pregravid BMIs were less than 19.8 kg/m2, and the birth length of triplets born to women whose pregravid BMIs were more than 26.0 kg/m2 averaged 1.5 cm longer than those of triplets born to women whose pregravid BMIs were less than 19.8 kg/m2. Concerning head circumference, the median head circumference of male neonates was approximately 0.5 cm longer than female neonates. Compared to singleton neonates, the median head circumference of triplets was almost the same.

Do twins have a lower mean IQ score than singletons? Previous studies have not examined whole populations and are likely to be biased. Twin data from two whole-population surveys of IQ at age 11 years were examined: the Scottish Mental Surveys of 1932 and 1947. Additional variables from childhood were examined as possible mediating effects. There were 1080 twins from the 1932 survey, and 949 from the 1947 survey. In both surveys twins scored lower on the Moray House Test of verbal reasoning, equivalent to a deficit of about 5 IQ points. In the Scottish Mental Survey of 1947 the whole-population group of twins was compared in detail with a representative population sample. The same mental ability difference of about 5 IQ points was found, and was not accounted for by father's occupation, overcrowding in the childhood home, childhood height, school attendance or the number of people in the family.

Research comparing the auditory systems of opposite-sex co-twins, homosexual females and bisexual females is reviewed. Suggestions for how the findings may apply to other populations are provided. Next, recent twin studies of disputed memories and male sexual behaviors are summarized, as are recent events of scientific interest to twin researchers. Finally, a tribute to the late Russian twin researcher Dr. Inna Vladimirovna Ravich-Scherbo is presented.