can modify the risk promoting effects of certain genes (interleukin-7 receptor-alpha, interleukin-2 receptor-alpha, MGAT1 and CTLA-4)in multiple sclerosis. In other words the risk promoting effects of genes are conditioned by the environment (and probably vice versa) .There has been much wringing of hands concerning the problems of replication in gene ( and risk factor) association studies, but these conditioning effects, rather than statistical artefact likely conribute largely to the problem. This really needs to be addresed by large scale genome wide association studies with subsets defined by particular environmental variables.
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