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Homocysteine, folate, vitamin B12 and B6 in mothers of children with neural tube defects offspring in Xinjiang, China
Acta Pediatrica, 08/16/2012
Gu Q et al. – These data confirm that higher Hcy, lower folate and vitamin B12 are risk factors for Neural tube defects (NTDs). Besides folate, vitamin B12 should be supplied to decrease NTDs occurrence. Further study is required to investigate the levels and accurate role of vitamin B6.
Methods- 30 mothers of NTDs offspring and another 60 mothers of normal children were enrolled as the patient and control groups from Xinjiang, China from Jan 2008 to May 2011.
- The plasma levels of Hcy, folate, vitamin B12 and B6 were measured and compared between the two groups.
- The morbidity of NTDs was 2.44‰ in Xinjiang.
- The Hcy was significantly higher in patient group than in control group.
- The folate in patient group was lower than in control group. The vitamin B12 were 181.3 ± 107.7 and 394.3 ± 386.3 ng/L in patient and control groups respectively, with a significant difference (p<0.001).
- The abnormal frequency of Hcy and vitamin B12 were statistically different in two groups.
- Moreover, folate and vitamin B12 levels were negatively correlated with Hcy while vitamin B6 was positively correlated with Hcy. Positive correlation was observed between folate and vitamin B12 levels.
