Man’s Best Friend May Play Role in Cleft Palate Research
Cleft palate is one of the most commonly occurring birth defects in children, effecting nearly 1,500 live births in the United States, and yet its cause is not completely understood. Normally, the tissues that make up the lip and palate fuse together in the second and third months of pregnancy. However in babies with cleft lip and cleft palate, the fusion never takes place or occurs only partially, leaving an opening.
In order to better understand cleft palate, researchers at the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine have turned to man’s best friend. Common breeding practices with Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers have made the dog a unique animal model to help understand the genetic basis of naturally occurring birth defects. They have found that dogs with this mutation also have a shortened jaw, similar to humans with Pierre Robin Sequence (PRS), often resulting in a cleft palate. They believe this discovery can lead to a breakthrough in research for humans.
For more information on this study please visit http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.1004257.
Leave a reply →
