Novel <b><i>VANGL1</i></b> Gene Mutations in 144 Slovakian, Romanian and German Patients with Neural Tube Defects

Neural tube defects (NTDs) are a group of congenital malformations of the central nervous system occurring at an average rate of 1 per 1,000 human pregnancies worldwide. Numerous genetic and environmental factors are discussed to be relevant in their etiology. In mice, mutants in >200 genes including the planar cell polarity (PCP) pathway are known to cause NTDs, and recently, heterozygous mutations in the human <i>VANGL1</i> gene have been described in a small subset of patients with NTDs. We performed a <i>VANGL1</i> mutation analysis in 144 unrelated individuals with NTDs from Slovakia, Romania and Germany and identified 3 heterozygous missense mutations: c.613…