Gene Expression of TGF-β in Children with Non-syndromic Oral Clefts

Objectives: To determine gene expression of transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) and possible environmental risk factors in children with and without non-syndromic oral clefts.
Methods: Cases (Children with cleft lip and palate; n=20) and controls (children unaffected; n=40) study, from saliva samples mRNA extraction was performed using the RNeasy® Protect Saliva Mini Kit-QIAgen and gene expression of TGF-β 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).
Results: No statistically significant association was found between any of the possible factors risk 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% maternal smoking and 13.3% alcohol consumption. There were significant differences in gene expression levels of TGF-β between groups (p=0.0205), being lower in children with oral clefts.
Conclusions: 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-β, suggesting that molecular alterations in the signaling pathway of TGF-β 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-β.