WebMD Medical News Laura J. Martin, MD Jan 5, 2011 -- New
research may help explain why multiple sclerosis rates have
risen sharply in the U.S. and some other countries among women,
while rates appear stable in men. The study could also broaden
understanding of how environmental influences alter genes to
cause a wide range of diseases. The causes of multiple sclerosis
(MS) are not well understood, but experts have long suspected
that environmental factors trigger the disease in people who are
genetically susceptible. In the newly published study,
researchers found that women with MS were more likely than men
with MS to have a specific genetic mutation that has been linked
to the disease. Women were also more likely to pass the mutation
to their daughters than their sons and more likely to share the
MS-susceptibility gene with more distant female family members.
If genes alone were involved, mothers would pass the MS-related
gene to their sons as often as their daughters, researcher
George C. Ebers, MD, of the