Estimates of the heritability of serum lipoprotein and lipid concentrations

Abstract

Heritability (h2) of a serum lipid or a serum lipoprotein concentration is the proportion of variability in that concentration, among individuals, which is associated with heredity. A familiar formula was derived for estimating h2 from a simple linear model for inheritance. The formula was derived from a consideration of variances and from a consideration of path coefficients. The estimate of heritability (.cxa.h2) is .cxa.h2 = 2(rMZ - rDZ) for twin studies, where rMZ and rDZ are the sample intraclass correlation coefficients among monozygous and dizygous twins, respectively. .cxa.h2 was calculated for some published twin data on serum lipoprotein and serum lipid concentrations.