Reports related some polymorphisms of the 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) to folate-dependent neural tube defects. In view of the
common origin of the cells involved both in neural
tube closure and heart septation, we analyzed the
MTHFR C677T and A1298C polymorphisms in mothers
of children with conotruncal heart defect (CD) and in
their offspring to evaluate the association between the
MTHFR genotype and the risk of CD. We genotyped
103 Italian mothers with CD offspring, 200 control
mothers, 103 affected children and their fathers by
restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis.
No increased risk was observed for the prevalence of
the 677TT genotype by itself in affected children and in
their mothers. The combined maternal 677TT/1298AA
and 677CC/1298CC genotypes have odds ratio of 1.73
and 1.85, respectively. The prevalence of 1298CC genotype
in the affected children gives odds ratio of 1.90,
that becomes 2.31 for the 677CC/1298CC genotype.
However, none of the odds ratios was statistically significant.
We observed a higher frequency of the
Print ISSN: 1434-6621
Volume: 41, 03/2003
Pages: 276 - 280