目的：介绍在遗传流行病学病例对照研究中,应用多因子降维法(MDR)分析基因-基因交互作用。方法：简述MDR的基本步骤、原理及其特点,并结合研究实例说明在病例对照研究中如何应用软件进行MDR分析。结果：相对于传统的统计学方法,MDR是一种参数、遗传模式的分析交互作用的方法,理论和实例研究均表明其分析交互作用具有较好的效能,目前已成功应用于散发性乳腺癌、心房颤动和原发性高血压等疾病的研究。结论：MDR能够应用于病例对照研究进行基因-基因交互作用的分析,且具有较传统的统计学分析方法法比拟的优势。
OBJECTIVE: To introduce the application of Multifactor Dimensionality Reduction (MDR) method for detecting gene-gene interactions in genetic case-control studies. METHODS: A brief overview on basic steps involved in the implementation, theoretical details, available software as well as the use and features of the MDR method were discussed based on a practical research case. RESULTS: Advantages of MDR were compared to the conventional statistical approaches, showing that MDR method was a novel, nonparametric, genetic model-free approach that was developed specifically for detecting gene-gene interactions. Theoretical and empirical studies suggested that MDR was having reasonable power for detecting gene-gene interactions. Applications of MDR method had found the evidence of gene-gene interactions in several diseases such as sporadic breast cancer, atrial fibrillation and essential hypertension. CONCLUSION: MDR method could be used for detecting gene-gene interactions in genetic case-control studies as having great advantages versus the conventional statistical approaches.