Genetic Variants in the Folate Pathway and the Risk of Neural Tube Defects: a Meta-analysis of the Published Literature

Overview

Journal PLoS One

Specialties General Medicine
Science

Date 2013 Apr 18

PMID 23593147

Citations 36

Authors

Ti Zhang

Jiao Lou

Rong Zhong

Jing Wu

Li Zou

Yu Sun

Xuzai Lu

Li Liu

Xiaoping Miao

Guanglian Xiong

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Neural Tube Defects (NTDs) are among the most prevalent and most severe congenital malformations worldwide. Polymorphisms in key genes involving the folate pathway have been reported to be associated with the risk of NTDs. However, the results from these published studies are conflicting. We surveyed the literature (1996-2011) and performed a comprehensive meta-analysis to provide empirical evidence on the association.

Methods And Findings: We investigated the effects of 5 genetic variants from 47 study populations, for a total of 85 case-control comparisons MTHFR C677T (42 studies; 4374 cases, 7232 controls), MTHFR A1298C (22 studies; 2602 cases, 4070 controls), MTR A2756G (9 studies; 843 cases, 1006 controls), MTRR A66G (8 studies; 703 cases, 1572 controls), and RFC-1 A80G (4 studies; 1107 cases, 1585 controls). We found a convincing evidence of dominant effects of MTHFR C677T (OR 1.23; 95%CI 1.07-1.42) and suggestive evidence of RFC-1 A80G (OR 1.55; 95%CI 1.24-1.92). However, we found no significant effects of MTHFR A1298C, MTR A2756G, MTRR A66G in risk of NTDs in dominant, recessive or in allelic models.

Conclusions: Our meta-analysis strongly suggested a significant association of the variant MTHFR C677T and a suggestive association of RFC-1 A80G with increased risk of NTDs. However, other variants involved in folate pathway do not demonstrate any evidence for a significant marginal association on susceptibility to NTDs.

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Metabolic Analysis of Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (MTHFR 677C<T and MTHFR 1298A<C), Serum Folate and Vitamin B12 in Neural Tube Defects.

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