Cleft lip and palate: An adverse pregnancy outcome due to undiagnosed maternal and paternal coeliac disease

SummaryDevelopment of orofacial component involves a complex series of events. Any insult to this significant event can lead to various orofacial cleft defects. The main categories among orofacial clefts are isolated cleft palate and cleft lip with or without cleft palate. There have been many factors implicated in the development of the anomaly. The environmental factors which contribute and the genes which predispose to the condition remain obscure despite decades of research. Though it is generally agreed that folic acid deficiency is a contributory factor for non-syndromic cleft lip and palate, fewer concerns are directed towards the role for maternal/paternal nutrition in orofacial cleft origin. However, previously undescribed, here we consider the potential influence of maternal and paternal coeliac disease on the etiology of non-syndromic cleft lip and palate as an unfavorable pregnancy outcome. We postulated this relationship based on our observation, study and an empirical survey, and could be due either to (I) folic acid mal absorption (II) a genetically mediated genomic imprinting system.