Spontaneous mutations play a key role in congenital heart disease
Sunday, May 12, 2013 - 14:00
in Health & Medicine
Although genetic factors contribute to congenital heart disease, many children born with heart defects have healthy parents and siblings, suggesting that new mutations that arise spontaneously —- known as de novo mutations —- might contribute to the disease. New research shows that about 10 percent of these defects are caused by genetic mutations that are absent in the parents of affected children.