Mouse experiments show fickle functions for folic acid
Thursday, October 6, 2011 - 07:00
in Biology & Nature
(Medical Xpress) -- Dietary folic acid helps prevent a subset of neurological birth defects in humans -- although the precise mechanism by which it prevents them is unclear. Now, researchers have found that certain genetic mutations in mice that mimic these birth defects do not respond to a diet enriched with folic acid. Even more surprising, some of these mouse mutants actually have an increased incidence of the birth defect related to spina bifida when fed a diet high in folic acid.