A TWIN AND FAMILY STUDY OF THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN IMMUNE-SYSTEM DYSFUNCTION AND DYSLEXIA USING BLOOD-SERUM IMMUNOASSAY AND SURVEY DATA

We conducted a study of the association between developmental reading disability (DRD) and immune disorders (ID) using both survey and immun oassay data in two separate samples of families. One sample was made u p of twins and their parents and was ascertained through a population- based sampling scheme. The other sample was a set of extended pedigree s selected for apparent autosomal dominant transmission of DRD. We fai led to rind an association between DRD and ID in either sample, regard less of the method used to assess immune system function. Even though our twin sample provided evidence that both DRD and immune conditions were significantly heritable, there was no evidence for a genetic corr elation between LD and DRD nor was there any clear indication that a s pecial subgroup of individuals may be comorbid for these conditions be cause of genetic reasons. How these negative findings can be reconcile d with the developmental hypothesis of Geschwind, Behan, Galaburda, an d colleagues, and how they may relate to the gene locus influencing DR D that has been recently located in the HLA region of the short arm of chromosome 6 is discussed. (C) 1998 Academic Press.