Family history of twinning and fertility traits in Nigerian mothers of dizygotic twins

Hur, Yoon-Mi, Martin, Nick, Oginni, Olakunle, Boomsma, Dorret, Hubers, Nikki and Mbarek, Hamdi 2024. Family history of twinning and fertility traits in Nigerian mothers of dizygotic twins. Twin Research and Human Genetics 27 (1) , pp. 12-17. 10.1017/thg.2024.2

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Abstract

Familial twinning and fertility traits were investigated in Nigerian mothers of dizygotic (DZ) twins (MoDZT; N = 972) and controls (N = 525) who responded to our person-to-person interview, which included questions on pregnancy history and family history of DZ twinning. Controls were defined as women who are not twins themselves and do not have twins in their first-degree relatives. Over 95% of the participants were Yoruba. We found that Nigerian MoDZT had an average of 4.0 (±2.6) pairs of twins among their relatives, and of these, the prevalence of DZ twins was significantly higher than that of monozygotic (MZ) twins (45.9% vs. 25.8%). Controls had an average of 0.5 (±0.4) pairs, and over 95% of the controls had no twins in their relatives. These results suggest genetic influences on DZ twinning in Nigerians. MoDZT were significantly younger in their mean age at first child, and had higher parity than controls, suggesting increased fertility in MoDZT. As compared to mothers with a single set of twins, mothers (N = 130) with multiple sets had significantly more twins among their relatives (5.4 pairs vs. 3.7 pairs) and had their first twins at a younger age (28.4 vs. 30.7 years), indicating that mothers with multiple sets of twins might have higher genetic propensity for twinning associated with earlier age at twin pregnancy. Our findings argue for genomewide association studies for DZ twinning in Nigerians, and may help to develop intervention strategies to overcome infertility/subfertility problems.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
ISSN:	1832-4274
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	10 May 2024
Date of Acceptance:	7 January 2024
Last Modified:	04 Jun 2024 14:54
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/168308

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