Interacting QTLs for hepatic fibrosis in BALB/c and FVB/N strains of mice

Aims: Recently we identified genetic loci that determine susceptibility to liver fibrosis in experimental crosses between fibrosis-susceptible and resistant inbred strains of mice (Hillebrandt et al. Nat Genet 2005;37:835–43). Despite the potential significance of gene-gene interactions (epistatsis), their role in fibrosis susceptibility is unknown, since previous QTL analyses for liver fibrosis modeled the effects of single QTLs only. Our aim now was to identify interacting QTLs for liver fibrosis. Methods: We intercrossed F1 hybrids of the fibrosis-susceptible strain BALB/cJ and the resistant strain FVB/NJ to…