SFEBES2016 Special Workshops and Sessions Applied Physiology Workshop: Endocrinology on safari: using comparative biology to unravel the complexities of endocrine physiology (3 abstracts)
Manchester.
Auto-immune diseases are complex diseases, that occur as a result of the influence and interaction of multiple genes, (at least 20, could be more than 100). However, the critical feature of these diseases is that they only occur after exposure to an environmental trigger. As yet, most environmental triggers have not been identified.
Most human autoimmune diseases have been shown to have an association with genes in the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC). However, since man is essentially outbred, thousands of cases and controls are required for Genome wide association studies (GWAS) in order to have the power to detect less strongly linked markers.
Many canine autoimmune diseases have been shown to have associations with the canine MHC. Dogs spontaneously develop these diseases and most dogs also share their environment with humans. These factors, plus the similar aetiologies of the canine and human diseases, suggest that the dog could be a good model for human disease.
Each dog breed represents a genetically inbred population, thus it is possible to study the same disease in different genetic backgrounds. Significant disease associations have been identified in canine GWAS, using only 100 cases and 100 controls.
We have used this approach to study canine diabetes, hypothyroid disease and Addisons disease.
One key question is: Could there be a genetic test for complex diseases?