[Genetic markers and diseases: the genetic, anthropometric and clinical characteristics of children with acute pneumonia]

Abstract

The paper presents new experimental evidence for the efficiency of an earlier developed approach (Yu. P. Altukhov, O. K. Botviniev, O. L. Kurbatova, 1979, Genetika, 15. No. 2) to the problem of nonspecific resistance of human organism to disease. Children suffering from acute pneumonia are shown to differ from a control group of healthy children by a complex of clinical, anthropometric and genetic characteristics. The group of children with acute pneumonia is characterised by a marked disposition to viro-bacterial diseases, high frequency of small developmental anomalies and by twofold decrease of proportion of children with average body length and weight at birth. Significant differences in 4 genetic systems (PGM1, ACP, MNSs and Rhesus) have been revealed. On the whole, children with pneumonia display lower level of average heterozygosity per locus and higher frequency of rare antigene combinations as well as rare electrophoretic protein variants.