Background. Susceptibility to a complex disease such as tuberculosis generally involves interactions among several genes and environmental factors. Several association studies have been conducted to examine the association between candidate genes and tuberculosis. However, the genetic risk factors are not fully understood. / Objective. To examine the effect of several candidate genes, including natural resistance associated macrophage protein 1 (NRAMP1), vitamin D receptor (VDR), surfactant proteins (SFTPA1), and mannose-binding lectin (MBL), and also to assess the effect of several risk factors on their association with tuberculosis. The other objectives were to test for mode of inheritance and also to estimate the relative risks of disease for different genotypes. / Methods. A prospective case-parental control study was conducted. Ninety-five nuclear families were selected from an existing database of families with tuberculosis in Ethiopia. Each family consisted of one affected child and two parents. The primary outcome was transmission/nontransmission of alleles from parents to affected offspring. / Results. The transmission disequilibrium test showed that marker SFTPA1-294 was significantly associated with the outcome (chi 2 = 4.297; p = 0.038). When other risk factors such as age, sex, ethnicity, certain symptoms or other genes were allowed to modify the transmission probabilities in a logistic regression model, several other markers were found to be significantly associated with the outcome. / Conclusions. Despite the limitations of this study, this thesis provided evidence for inheritance of susceptibility to tuberculosis in Hadiayan families in Ethiopia. To confirm the findings in this thesis, it would be useful to conduct similar research in populations with different ethnic origins, where genetic and environmental exposures can be examined and compared.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.78234 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Ahmadipour, Nooshin |
| Contributors | Greenwood, Celia (advisor), Gyorkos, Theresa W. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001974780, proquestno: AAIMQ88142, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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