Posted: Thu 05/04/2007] Researchers in Canada have identified a gene that causes the developmental disorder spina bifida.
The discovery by researchers in Mc Gill University, Montreal, is expected to help in the diagnosis of spina bifida, which can cause disabilities.It could also be used to identify parents who have a higher chance of having a child with spina bifida.
The discovery does not constitute a cure, the researchers stressed, but could speed up the search for one. It will provide clinicians with a better understanding of the development of the disease.
Spina bifida, a Latin term meaning open spine, is a birth defect in which the spine does not form completely, leaving the spinal cord exposed and prone to damage.Consequences of the condition range from minor defects that can be corrected by surgery, to severe physical deformation and paralysis.
The condition is caused by a defect in the neural tube that occurs during the first four weeks of pregnancy, when the brain and the spinal cord are developing.
The findings are published in the April edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.
13 June 2008 at 11:55 pm |
yeah or it could lead to people having their children “fixed” before birth.