Frances M K Williams

..Although a putative mechanism of action suggests a disease-modifying effect, the important outcomes from this trial are good symptom response and a low adverse effect profile, albeit in the small number of patients studied...

..811). Interpretation: ABO gene variants are associated with large-vessel and cardioembolic stroke but not small-vessel disease. This work sheds light on the different pathogenic mechanisms underpinning stroke subtype. Ann Neurol 2013...

..This article examines the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to back pain and disc disease, with a specific focus on occupational exposures...

..Cross-sectional LDD as determined by MRI scan is known to be highly heritable. The authors postulated that the rate of progression might also be controlled by genetic factors...

..In vitro, the gene product growth differentiation factor 5 has been shown to promote growth and repair of animal disc. This study was undertaken to investigate whether the GDF5 gene plays a role in LDD...

..Patterns of food intake and prevalent osteoarthritis of the hand, hip, and knee were studied using the twin design to limit the effect of confounding factors. Compounds found in associated food groups were further studied in vitro...

..The present work aimed to confirm this association in a large population sample using MRI and explore the relationship further, in particular to determine whether it is mediated genetically...

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..The aims of the current study from the EU consortium EuroCLOT were to (1) determine the heritability of fibrin phenotypes and (2) identify QTLs associated with fibrin phenotypes...

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..The authors examined the contribution of genetic factors, lumbar disc degeneration (LDD) and other risk factors in a female sample of the general population. Material and..

..The resource has led to many successful and innovative research projects particularly in common age-related diseases, and has led to collaborations with over 80 groups worldwide...

..This study used a classical twin design to examine whether these conditions are linked through shared environmental exposures or by a common underlying genetic propensity to vasospasm...

..Therefore, simply combining all individuals into groups by any other criteria (age, sex, etc.) and overlooking the distinctive patterns of BMI change may lead to biased inferences in epidemiologic and etiologic research of the future...

..Telomere loss in white blood cells (WBC) is accelerated by oxidative stress and inflammation in vitro. It was postulated that the accelerated WBC telomere shortening in RA occurs as a result of exposure to chronic inflammation...

..An association between COMP and OA has been shown, yet the precise factors governing serum levels of COMP remain unclear. The aim of this study was to determine whether genetic factors influence serum levels of COMP...

..Cost-effective large scale genetic testing is becoming available and lends itself to combining large multi-national populations for candidate gene analysis, meta-analyses, DNA pooling studies and gene expression studies...

..The approach of sequencing extreme exome variation in normal individuals has provided important insights into gene networks mediating pain sensitivity in humans and will be applicable to other common complex traits...

..We have shown that the SNR test provides a useful surrogate marker of hearing. This will enable a much larger sample to be collected at a fraction of the cost, facilitating future genetic association studies...