Evidence for biological inheritance of the eosinophil response to internal parasites in southeastern Brazil

Abstract

One hundred and seventy-seven individuals belonging to 120 complete or incomplete nuclear families from Bambui, in the State of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil, were studied in order to examine causes of variation in the eosinophil rate among subjects infested by intestinal worms with an extra-digestive cycle. Segregation analysis without correction for skewness showed that the hypothesis of the presence of an additive major gene was consistent with the data, although a dominant, recessive, or a multifactorial hypothesis could not account properly for the observed significant familial aggregation. The most parsimonious correction for skewness showed similar results, but could not distinguish between dominant and recessive models, although co-dominance was rejected. Since these models assume that skewness was attributable to the commingling of two distributions, these results seem to agree with those for uncorrected data. These findings suggest that several genetically independent factors determine the resistance/susceptibility to helminth infestation mainly through their ability to influence the eosinophil response.