DIFFERENCES IN RISK OF CROHNS-DISEASE IN OFFSPRING OF MOTHERS AND FATHERS WITH INFLAMMATORY BOWEL-DISEASE

Objective: To determine whether there are any unusual patterns of tran smission of susceptibility to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) within multiplex families. Methods: Individuals with IBD were recruited for g enome-wide screening of susceptibility genes, The extent of familial a ggregation and blood relationships in multiplex families were determin ed by questionnaires given to participants followed up by confirmation of disease diagnosis by participants' physicians, Results: Of 135 fam ilies identified in which both a parent and a child had IBD, 93 involv ed transmission of susceptibility to disease from mother to child vers us 42 examples of transmission from father to child (p = 0.00001, exac t two-tailed binomial test), This distortion in transmission on the ba sis of the sex of the parent was observed only among non-Jewish pairs with Crohn's disease (CD), in which, of 33 parent-child pairs with CD, disease susceptibility was transmitted from the mother 28 times (p = 0.00007), Conclusion: Susceptibility to CD in a subset of patients may involve a gene that is imprinted.