Advances of etiological factors related to neural tube defects

Neural tube defects(NTDs),including anencephaly,spina bifida,cerebral or encephalocele,cerebral meningocele are a group of severe congenital anomalies resulting from the failure of neurulation.As one of the most common birth defects,NTDs can cause infant morbidity and mortality,resulting in tremendous socialand family costs annually.Most studies show that Neural tube defects is a multi-facor and multi-genetic diseases,and the real reason for it is not clear,now we can not explain the reason with one facts.The recent domestic and international researches are reviewed in this article,mainly including the genotypes of folate-metabolizing enzymes and the gene of neural tube morphology.