Environment More Than Heredity Determines The State of Our Immune System

[Wally]

Environment, not genes, dictates human immune variation, study finds
Date:
January 15, 2015
Source:
Stanford University Medical Center
Summary:
A study of twins shows that our environment, more than our heredity, plays the starring role in determining the state of our immune system, the body's primary defense against disease. This is especially true as we age, the study indicates.
. . .
Mark Davis and his colleagues have discovered that our environment, not our genes, play a greater factor in shaping the human immune system. Mark Davis, PhD, is a professor of microbiology and immunology and director of Stanford's Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection.

See, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150115134715.htm

 

[Snow Leopard]

Environment, Genes and old fashioned luck (stochastic effects)..

 

[natasa778]

... One obvious example of environment-over-genetics was in a measurement of the twins’ reactions to a flu vaccine. Siblings had very different immune responses to a vaccine when their blood was analyzed three or four weeks after they were immunized. If their DNA were the dominating driver, scientists would expect twins to have similar, or even identical immune responses.

But, in fact, the twins’ responses were as dissimilar as any two unrelated people, the researchers found. That means that instead of genetics, environmental factors like a person’s previous exposure to certain flu strains are driving the immune response...