NICHD-California Birth Defects Study

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Of Child Health & Human Development

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

We have expanded our collaboration with The California Department of Health and Stanford Universiy. Recently, we published a report on copy number variants in Ebstein anomaly. We genotyped 60 EA cases identified from all live births (2,891,076) from selected California counties (1991-2010) using the Illumina HumanOmni2.5-8 array. We identified 38 candidate CNVs in 28 (46%) cases and prioritized and validated 11 CNVs based on the genes included.Five CNVs (41%) overlapped or were close to genes involved in early myocardial development, including NODAL, PDLIM5, SIX1, ASF1A and FGF12. We also replicated a previous association of EA with CNVs at 1p34.1 and AKAP12. Finally, we identified four CNVs overlapping or in close proximity to the transcription factors HES3, TRIM71, CUX1 and EIF4EBP2.This study supports the relationship of genetic factors to EA and demonstrates that defects in cardiomyocytes and myocardium differentiation may play a role. Abnormal differentiation of cardiomyocytes and how genetic factors contribute should be examined for their association with EA. This study is being expanded since additional funding has become available to include other, rare, non-cardiac defects. Because of the very large number of births in California, we anticipate being able to identify cases of very rare defects for investigation. Because of our work in New York State, we also should be able to identify subjects from NY to verify findings from our investigations in California. This additional work has received permission from the State of California to provide biospecimens. We are awaiting samples from the state of California.