Consanguinity and inflammatory bowel diseases: is there a relation?

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Gastroenterology
• Genetics
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), including Crohn disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), have complex etiologies.
• Consanguinity, or mating between related individuals, can influence the prevalence of genetic disorders.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the potential relationship between parental consanguinity and the occurrence of IBD in a pediatric population.
• To explore differences in consanguinity rates among children with IBD, CD, UC, and healthy controls.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective review of medical records for 138 children diagnosed with IBD.
• Data collected included age, sex, IBD type, consanguinity status, and family history (FH) of IBD.
• Prevalence of consanguinity and first-cousin consanguinity was compared between patient groups and controls.

Main Results:

• The prevalence of consanguinity was 50% in IBD, 53% in CD, 39% in UC, and 60% in controls.
• Consanguinity was significantly higher in controls than in IBD and UC patients (P=0.02 and P=0.026, respectively).
• No significant differences in consanguinity were found between CD patients and controls, or in the prevalence of first-cousin consanguinity across all groups.

Conclusions:

• Parental consanguinity does not appear to be significantly related to IBD in this pediatric cohort.
• The findings suggest a potentially reduced genetic susceptibility in the context of IBD, particularly when no family history is present.
• Further research with larger sample sizes and detailed multi-generational family history is warranted to fully elucidate the role of consanguinity in IBD.