While the development of multiple sclerosis in a given person remains somewhat of a mystery, consensus opinion is that there is at least one component that is genetically based, with perhaps others including an environmental trigger such as a virus or toxin.
A new study sheds some interesting light on the hereditary aspect of MS development, demonstrating that men with multiple sclerosis "pass" the disease onto their children 2.2 times more often than women. This discovery should perhaps be considered alongside another mysterious gender-based fact-- that Multiple Sclerosis is known to affect approximately two times more women than men.
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"Fathers with MS tend to have more children who develop MS than do mothers with the disease," says Dr. Brian Weinshenker, a Mayo Clinic neurologist. "When we looked at a large population of MS patients, when there was a parent and a child who had MS in a family, the child with MS got the disease twice as often from the father rather than the mother.
Sources:
http://www.upi.com/ConsumerHealthDaily/view.php?StoryID=20060725-051817-9500r
http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/67/2/305
