Heritability in frontotemporal tauopathies

Exploring the degree of heritability in a large cohort of frontotemporal lobar degeneration with tau-immunopositive inclusions (FTLD-tau) and determining if different FTLD-tau subtypes are associated with stronger heritability will provide important insight into disease pathogenesis.

Using modified Goldman pedigree classifications, heritability was examined in pathologically proven FTLD-tau cases with dementia at any time (n = 124) from the Sydney-Cambridge collection.

Thirteen percent of the FTLD-tau cohort have a suggested autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance, 25% have some family history, and 62% apparently sporadic. MAPT mutations were found in 9% of cases. Globular glial tauopathy was associated with the strongest heritability with 40% having a suggested autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance followed by corticobasal degeneration (19%), Pick's disease (8%), and progressive supranuclear palsy (6%).

Similar to clinical frontotemporal dementia syndromes, heritability varies between pathological subtypes. Further identification of a genetic link in cases with strong heritability await discovery.