Mutation incidence in folate metabolism genes and regulatory genes in Polish families with neural tube defects.

Neural tube defects (NTDs) are a common cause of disability or death of new-borns, but the aetiology and genetic background of this disease are still poorly understood. Therefore, it was decided to determine the conditions for the identification of several polymorphisms and to perform a preliminary study on Polish NTD patients and their parents. According to the results of this study, the genetic predisposition to NTD can be correlated with the 677TT genotype in the MTHFR gene, 677CT/1298AC haplotype (the MTHFR gene), 2756G allele in the MTR gene, 66AG variant and minisatellite sequence with 5 or 10 repeats in intron 6 of the MTRR gene. The 530GG and TIVS7-2/TIVS7-2 genotypes in the T gene could also be considered as a risk factor for NTD. The analysis also revealed no correlation between neurulation disturbances and A4956G and A1186G mutations in the BRCA1 gene and the 844ins68bp in CBS gene. Although a correlation was found of some molecular markers with NTD, an additional examination should be conducted on more numerous groups to obtain statistically significant results.