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A genome scan for hostility: the national heart, lung, and blood institute family heart study

Molecular Psychiatry volume 9, pages 124–126 (2004)Cite this article

Previously published results from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Family Heart Study (FHS) reported a significant increase in risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) associated with hostility in men and women who were defined as having a high CHD risk based on their family histories, but not in a randomly selected sample.1 Subsequent analyses also found increased risk for carotid artery atherosclerosis associated with hostility among high-risk women, but not in men or in women with low-to-medium CHD risk.2 Further research on this cohort indicated significant familial resemblance for the total hostility score and for each of the three subscales: cynicism, aggressive responding, and hostile affect.3 Other studies, not using genome scans but analyzing either twin resemblance or familial correlations, have found familial resemblance attributed to heritability for hostility, while others have not.4,5,6,7,8 The inconsistent findings based on twin studies as well as our observation of spousal resemblance for most of the scales warrant further investigation. The goal of the present study was to carry out a genome scan in a cohort with extended families to test for genetic linkage to hostility.

The FHS is a multicenter, population-based study designed to identify and evaluate genetic and nongenetic determinants of CHD, preclinical atherosclerosis, and cardiovascular disease risk factors. A description of the methods and design was previously published.9 Families in the study were chosen either at random (random group) or on the basis of higher-than-expected risk of CHD (high-risk group) from previously established population-based cohort studies. The high-risk group was defined on the basis of a family-risk score, which reflects a comparison of the family's age- and sex-specific incidence of CHD with that expected in the general population.10 As previously described, 566 families were selected on the basis of a higher-than-expected risk of CHD, and 588 were randomly selected. To reduce the locus heterogeneity, this sample was limited to Caucasians from the US.

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Acknowledgements

Support to this work was partially provided by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute cooperative agreement grants U01 HL56563, U01 HL56564, U01 HL56565, U01 HL56566, U01 HL56567, U01 HL56568, and U01 HL56569. This paper is presented on behalf of the investigators of the NHLBI Family Heart Study. The participating institutions and principal staff of the study are as follows: Forsyth County/University of North Carolina/Wake Forest University: Gerardo Heiss, Stephen Rich, Greg Evans; James Pankow; HA Tyroler, Jeannette T Bensen, Catherine Paton, Delilah Posey, and Amy Haire; University of Minnesota Field Center: Donna K Arnett, Aaron R Folsom, Larry Atwood, James Peacock, and Greg Feitl; Boston University/Framingham Field Center: R Curtis Ellison, Richard H Myers, Yuqing Zhang, Andrew G Bostom, Luc Djoussé, Jemma B Wilk, and Greta Lee Splansky; University of Utah Field Center: Steven C Hunt, Roger R Williams (deceased), Paul N Hopkins, Hilary Coon and Jan Skuppin; Coordinating Center, Washington University, St Louis: Michael A Province, DC Rao, Ingrid B Borecki, Yuling Hong, Mary Feitosa, Jeanne Cashman, and Avril Adelman; Central Biochemistry Laboratory, University of Minnesota: John H Eckfeldt, Catherine Leiendecker-Foster, Michael Y Tsai, and Greg Rynders; Central Molecular Laboratory, University of Utah: Mark F Leppert, Jean-Marc Lalouel, Tena Varvil, Lisa Baird; National Heart, Lung, & Blood Institute—Project Office: Phyliss Sholinsky, Millicent Higgins (retired), Jacob Keller (retired), Sarah Knox, and Lorraine Silsbee.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA

    S S Knox

  2. Section of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

    J B Wilk, Y Zhang & R C Ellison

  3. Preventive Medicine Research Institute, Sausalito, CA, USA

    G Weidner

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  1. S S Knox
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Correspondence to S S Knox.

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Knox, S., Wilk, J., Zhang, Y. et al. A genome scan for hostility: the national heart, lung, and blood institute family heart study. Mol Psychiatry 9, 124–126 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4001447

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