NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The findings from a new study implicate maternal smoking as a risk factor for orofacial clefts in the fetus, especially if the fetus has gene variants that reduce their ability to detoxify tobacco smoke.
The study, which is reported in the March issue of Epidemiology, involved 421 infants with a cleft and 299 healthy controls who were tested for genetic polymorphisms in NAT1 and NAT2, two enzymes that detoxify tobacco smoke. In addition, the mothers of all subjects were surveyed regarding tobacco use.
Consistent with their own previous report, Dr. Edward J. Lammer, from the Children’s Hospital Research Institute in Oakland, California, and colleagues found that smoking was an independent, albeit modest, risk factor for orofacial clefts. NAT1 and NAT2 variants, by contrast, were not independently linked to the cleft risk.
In the context of maternal smoking, however, NAT1 polymorphisms did have an important effect on cleft risk. In fact, the risk of cleft lip with or without cleft palate was increased more than fourfold with one NAT1 genotype. No interaction was seen between NAT2 variants and maternal smoking.
“Further studies will need to confirm these observations and should include information on the contribution of maternal genotypes as well,” the researchers conclude.
Source: Epidemiology 2004;15:150-156. [ Google search on this article ]
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