I. Q. and Month of Birth

Objective: We aimed to test the viral hypothesis in the pathogenesis of autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD). Design: We determined the pattern of month of birth (MOB) distribution in patients with AITD and in the general population and searched for differences between them. Methods: A total of 1023 patients were included in this study; 359 patients had Graves’ hyperthyroidism (GrH) and 664 had Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism (HH). We divided the patients with HH into three subgroups according to their thyroid peroxidase (TPO) antibody titers at diagnosis: low levels (<500 IU/ml), high levels (500–1000 IU/ml), and extremely high levels (>1000 IU/ml). We used cosinor analysis to analyze the data. Results: Overall, patients with GrH and HH had a different pattern of MOB distribution when compared with the general population and between groups. Furthermore, among both patients with GrH and HH, both genders had a different pattern of MOB distribution when compared with the general population and this pattern was also different between genders. Finally, only women with extremely high titers of TPO antibodies at diagnosis and men with low or extremely high TPO antibody levels showed rhythmicity in MOB, with a pattern of MOB distribution different from that in controls. Conclusions: The different MOB seasonality in both GrH and HH points towards a similar maybe even common etiology with type 1 diabetes mellitus and multiple sclerosis, namely a seasonal viral infection as the initial trigger in the perinatal period, the clinical disease resulting from further specific damage over time.

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Month of Birth and Subsequent Development of Type I Diabetes (IDDM)

Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism ◽

10.1515/jpem.1999.12.3.397 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Z. Laron ◽

I. Shamis ◽

D. Nitzan-Kaluski ◽

I. Ashkenazi

Keyword(s):

Type I Diabetes ◽

Subsequent Development ◽

Type I ◽

Month Of Birth

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Polygenic risk for schizophrenia and season of birth within the UK Biobank cohort

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291718000454 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 49 (15) ◽

pp. 2499-2504 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Valentina Escott-Price ◽

Daniel J. Smith ◽

Kimberley Kendall ◽

Joey Ward ◽

George Kirov ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Environmental Exposure ◽

Copy Number Variants ◽

Season Of Birth ◽

Uk Biobank ◽

Month Of Birth ◽

Risk Alleles ◽

Gene Environment ◽

Increased Risk ◽

The Uk ◽

Pathogenic Process

AbstractBackgroundThere is strong evidence that people born in winter and in spring have a small increased risk of schizophrenia. As this ‘season of birth’ effect underpins some of the most influential hypotheses concerning potentially modifiable risk exposures, it is important to exclude other possible explanations for the phenomenon.MethodsHere we sought to determine whether the season of birth effect reflects gene-environment confounding rather than a pathogenic process indexing environmental exposure. We directly measured, in 136 538 participants from the UK Biobank (UKBB), the burdens of common schizophrenia risk alleles and of copy number variants known to increase the risk for the disorder, and tested whether these were correlated with a season of birth.ResultsNeither genetic measure was associated with season or month of birth within the UKBB sample.ConclusionsAs our study was highly powered to detect small effects, we conclude that the season of birth effect in schizophrenia reflects a true pathogenic effect of environmental exposure.

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