BACKGROUND Periconceptional use of folic acid can reduce a woman's risk of having a baby with a neural-tube defect and other congenital abnormalities. METHOD Case reports of babies OO both males, who were delivered at term by emergency caesarean section by a 21 year old woman. At birth, both twins had neural tube defects, bilateral talipes equinovarusdeformity, bladder and bowel dysfunction. ...

MATH1 is a neural-specific basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor. Members of this family of transcription factors are involved in the development of specific subsets of neurons in the developing vertebrate nervous system. Here we examine the cells expressing MATH1 with respect to their proliferative state and co-expression of cell-type-specific differentiation markers. We localize the MAT...

Formation of the vertebrate neural tube represents one of the premier examples of morphogenesis in animal development. Here, we investigate this process in the simple chordate Ciona intestinalis Previous studies have implicated Nodal and FGF signals in the specification of lateral and ventral neural progenitors. We show that these signals also control the detailed cellular behaviors underlying ...

A series of microsurgical operations was performed in chick embryos to study the factors that control the polarity, position and differentiation of the sympathetic and dorsal root ganglion cells developing from the neural crest. The neural tube, with or without the notochord, was rotated by 180 degrees dorsoventrally to cause the neural crest cells to emerge ventrally. In some embryos, the noto...

An earlier preliminary paper is expanded. Women who had given birth to one or more infants with a neural tube defect were recruited into a trial of per conceptional vitamin supplementation. Two hundred mothers attending five centres were fully supplemented (FS), 50 were partially supplemented (PS), and 300 were unsupplemented (US). Neural tube defect recurrences in the study pregnancies were 1 ...

OBJECTIVE A significant decline in the prevalence of neural tube defects (NTD) through food fortification has been reported. Questions remain, however, about the effectiveness of this intervention in reducing the gap in prevalence across socioeconomic status (SES). STUDY DESIGN Using health number and through record linkage, children born in Ontario hospitals between 1994 and 2009 were follow...

Neural tube defects (NTDs) in Hawaii between 1986 and 1997 were examined using data from a statewide birth defects surveillance system. The prevalence increased significantly over the twelve-year period. NTD prevalence did not appear to vary by place of residence. The relationship of type of defect, maternal age, and infant/fetus sex was similar to that reported in the literature.

Primary care practitioners are ideally situated to carry out health promotion activities. Neural tube defects are of a fairly low incidence, but the consequences are tragic. They range from life long physical and often intellectual disabilities, to death at birth. Increased folate intake, either through eating folate rich foods or through supplementation, has been shown to reduce the incidence ...

Mll, Brg1 and Brm are vertebrate homologues of Drosophila trithorax group (trxG) genes. We isolated chicken Mll cDNA clones, and examined patterns of Mll, Brg1 and Brm expression in chick embryos. All three genes were expressed from embryonic stage 2 onwards. Mll transcripts were just detectable in all tissues by in situ hybridization, with highest level in dorsal neural tube and notochord. Brg...