{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,22]],"date-time":"2026-01-22T23:39:22Z","timestamp":1769125162501,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,10]],"date-time":"2022-10-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1665360000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Semmelweis Science and Innovation Fund"},{"name":"Dean\u2019s Fund"},{"name":"National Research, Development and Innovation Fund"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Medicina"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Introduction: White matter hyperintensities (WMH) indicate white matter brain lesions in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which can be used as a marker for brain aging and cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative disorders. Twin studies revealed substantial but not uniform WMH heritability in elderly twins. The objective of our study was to investigate the genetic and environmental components of WMH, as well as their importance in a healthy twin population, utilizing 3T MRI scanners in a middle-aged twin population. Methods: Brain MRI was performed on 120 healthy adult twins from the Hungarian Twin Registry on a 3T scanner (86 monozygotic, MZ and 34 dizygotic, DZ twins; median age 50 \u00b1 26.5 years, 72.5% female and 27.5% male). The count of WMH on FLAIR images was calculated using an automated volumetry pipeline (volBrain) and human processing. The age- and sex-adjusted MZ and DZ intra-pair correlations were determined and the total variance was decomposed into genetic, shared and unique environmental components using structural equation modeling. Results: Age and sex-adjusted MZ intrapair correlations were higher than DZ correlations, indicating moderate genetic influence in each lesion (rMZ = 0.466, rDZ = \u22120.025 for total count; rMZ = 0.482, rDZ = 0.093 for deep white matter count; rMZ = 0.739, rDZ = 0.39 for infratentorial count; rMZ = 0.573, rDZ = 0.372 for cerebellar count and rMZ = 0.473, rDZ = 0.19 for periventricular count), indicating a moderate heritability (A = 40.3%, A = 45%, A = 72.7% and A = 55.5%and 47.2%, respectively). The rest of the variance was influenced by unique environmental effects (E between 27.3% and 59.7%, respectively). Conclusions: The number of WMH lesions is moderately influenced by genetic effects, particularly in the infratentorial region in middle-aged twins. These results suggest that the distribution of WMH in various brain regions is heterogeneous.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/medicina58101425","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,10]],"date-time":"2022-10-10T21:07:11Z","timestamp":1665436031000},"page":"1425","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Genetic and Environmental Effects on the Development of White Matter Hyperintensities in a Middle Age Twin Population"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"58","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6942-9997","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Amirreza","family":"Alijanpourotaghsara","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5911-9335","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"David","family":"Strelnikov","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6000-5044","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marton","family":"Piroska","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Laszlo","family":"Szalontai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0627-1795","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bianka","family":"Forgo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine and Health, \u00d6rebro University, 702 81 \u00d6rebro, Sweden"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zsofia","family":"Jokkel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Al\u00edz","family":"Persely","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5875-4006","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Anita","family":"Hernyes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lajos Rudolf","family":"Kozak","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Adam","family":"Szabo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Pal","family":"Maurovich-Horvat","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5909-3780","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Adam Domonkos","family":"Tarnoki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7001-7647","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"David Laszlo","family":"Tarnoki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical Imaging Centre, Semmelweis University, 1082 Budapest, Hungary"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"667","DOI":"10.2214\/AJR.18.20888","article-title":"Prevalence of White Matter Hyperintensity in Young Clinical Patients","volume":"213","author":"Wang","year":"2019","journal-title":"Am. 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