Meisser Vidal Madera Anaya; Farith González Martinez; Daniel Esteban Romero Suarez & Amileth Suárez Causado
Summary
The aim of this study was to determine gene expression of transforming growth factor beta (TGF-ß) and possible risk factors in children with and without non-syndromic oral clefts. Cases (Children with cleft lip and palate; n= 20) and controls (unaffected children; n= 40) study, from saliva samples mRNA extraction was performed using the RNeasy® Protect Saliva Mini Kit-QIAgen and gene expression of TGF-ß by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, a questionnaire was also applied to record sociodemographic characteristics and possible risk factors. Data were analyzed using measures of central tendency and dispersion, frequencies and percentages. Odds ratio, Chi-square and T-Student tests were used to determine association (p<0.05). The average age of participants was 6.8 (SD= 4.6) years and 63.3 % were male. No statistically significant association was found between any of the possible risk factors examined with the development of oral clefts (p> 0.05), however it was reported that 11.7 % of mothers had ingested some type of drug during pregnancy, 1.7 % reported maternal smoking and 13.3 % reported alcohol consumption. There were significant differences in gene expression levels of TGF-ß between groups (p= 0.0205), being lower in children with oral clefts. Most environmental risk factors evaluated here gave little evidence of association with the presence of oral clefts. Children with oral clefts have lower gene expression of TGF-ß, suggesting that molecular alterations in the signaling pathway of TGF-ß are possibly involved in the development of cleft lip and palate, as they can affect processes of differentiation, growth and proliferation cell, where several genes are involved including TGF-ß.
KEY WORDS: cleft lip and palate, Transforming Growth Factor beta, signal transduction.
How to cite this article
MADERA, A. M. V.; GONZÁLEZ, M. F.; ROMERO, S. D. E. & SUÁREZ, C. A. Gene expression of Transforming Growth Factor Beta in children with non-syndromic cleft lip and palate. Int. J. Odontostomat., 10(1):75-84, 2016.