Objectives-To evaluate whether genetic factors contribute to the associatio
n between low birth weight and increased blood pressure among adolescents.
Design-Historical cohort study of twin pairs. It was evaluated whether (1)
a negative association between birth weight and systolic blood pressure was
found in the overall twin sample and (2) whether the intrapair difference
in birth weight correlated with the intrapair difference in systolic blood
pressure-thereby controlling for the effect of genetic factors (all in mono
zygotic and on average half in dizygotic pairs).
Setting-The Minnesota Twin Family Study.
Participants-1311 pairs of adolescent twins.
Main results-A negative association between birth weight and systolic blood
pressure was retrieved in the overall sample. The regression coefficient a
fter controlling for current weight was -1.88 mm Hg/kg (SE 0.61), which cor
responds to results from previous studies of singleton adolescents. The reg
ression coefficient fell to -0.64 mm Hg/kg (SE 0.86) when the intrapair ana
lyses were used. The largest reduction was observed among monozygotic twins
: from -2.44 mm Hg/kg (SE 0.75) in the overall monozygotic twin sample to -
1.06 mm Hg/kg (SE 1.14) in the analyses of the within monozygotic pair diff
erences.
Conclusion-The association between low birth weight and increased blood pre
ssure later in life is well established. "The fetal programming hypothesis"
suggests that the association is caused by intrauterine malnutrition while
a new hypothesis "the fetal insulin hypothesis" proposes that genetically
determined insulin resistance also contributes significantly to the associa
tion. A recent twin study of middle aged twins showed no evidence for an in
fluence of genetic factors while this larger study provides support for the
fetal insulin hypothesis: the association between birth weight and blood p
ressure attenuated among adolescents when genetic factors were controlled.
Together this suggests an important contribution of genetic factors to the
association between fetal growth and systolic blood pressure in adolescence
.