This paper focuses on the current best-evidence-based clinical practices and controversies surrounding folic acid supplementation/fortification for the prevention of neural tube defects (NTDs) during early pregnancy. The paper also discusses the controversies surrounding the effect of folic acid on the prevention as well as the promotion of cancer. Sufficient data is available to safely conclud...

eaCh year in the united StateS, an estimated 3,000 pregnancies are affected by neural tube defects (NTDs), including spina bifida (an incomplete closure of the spinal cord and spinal column) and anencephaly (severe underdevelopment of the brain). NTDs are among the most common birth defects that contribute to perinatal mortality, infant mortality, and serious disability in surviving children. R...

Genetic and environmental factors contribute to the etiology of neural tube defects (NTDs). While periconceptional folic acid supplementation is known to significantly reduce the risk of NTDs, folate metabolic pathway related factors do not account for all NTDs. Evidence from mouse models indicates that the tumor protein p53 (TP53) is involved in implantation and normal neural tube development....

In humans, neural tube failure to close during the 4th week of gestation leads to the development of severe congenital malformations of the central nervous system because of an error in maternal folate metabolism associated gene variants. The frequency of genotypic variants of GCP II (H475Y) and folate carrier RFCI (SLC19A1) gene polymorphism (80 G →A) were evaluated as potential candidate gene...

BACKGROUND Although folic acid deficiency is known to be one of the factors in the development of spina bifida and other neural tube defects (NTD) the exact pathophysiology still remains unclear. Progesterone is an endogenous hormone which increases significantly during pregnancy. AIMS We aimed to study the possible negative effects of high dose progesterone on neural tube development in earl...

Oxidative stress and apoptosis are implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetic embryopathy. The proapoptotic c-Jun NH(2)-terminal kinases (JNK)1/2 activation is associated with diabetic embryopathy. We sought to determine whether 1) hyperglycemia-induced oxidative stress is responsible for the activation of JNK1/2 signaling, 2) JNK1 contributes to the teratogenicity of hyperglycemia, and 3) both...

Neural tube closure is a critical developmental event that relies on actomyosin contractility to facilitate specific processes such as apical constriction, tissue bending, and directional cell rearrangements. These complicated processes require the coordinated activities of Rho-Kinase (Rock), to regulate cytoskeletal dynamics and actomyosin contractility, and the Planar Cell Polarity (PCP) path...

abstract objective neural tube defects including anencephaly, encephalocele, and spina bifida are major congenital malformations with multifactorial etiology, and with a great variation in their prevalence in different populations. the study on the prevalence of these malformations may be helpful in planning strategies for their prevention. the aim of this epidemiologic descriptive study was to...

Susceptibility to neural tube defects (NTDs), such as anencephaly and spina bifida is influenced by genetic and environmental factors including maternal nutrition. Maternal periconceptional supplementation with folic acid significantly reduces the risk of an NTD-affected pregnancy, but does not prevent all NTDs, and "folic acid non-responsive" NTDs continue to occur. Similarly, among mouse mode...

Genetic correlation of human neural tube defects (NTDs) with NTD genes identified in mouse may unravel predisposing complex traits for assessment of individual risk and treatment in clinical settings. Folic acid (FA) can reduce the recurrence of NTDs in human populations by as much as 50-70%, though the mechanism of this rescue is unknown. We examined whether Crooked tail ( Cd ), a mouse strain...