Does exposure to risk factors for ulcerative colitis occur during an early period of life?
The birth-cohort pattern indicates that acquisition of ulcerative colitis is strongly influenced by environmental risk factors and that the exposure to these factors occurs during an early period of life. The similarity in the birth-cohort patterns of duodenal ulcer and ulcerative colitis could hint at a childhood infection or a related mode of transmission in both diseases.
Four different CHST6 missense mutations, of which p.C165Y is novel, were identified. Allelic association of the c.[484C>G; 599T>G] in six probands out of eight, as well as occurrence of this particular allele in a heterozygous state in one healthy control individual, supports a common founder effect for MCD in the Czech Republic.