Maternal serum AGEs levels in pregnancies associated with neural tube defects

•A hospital-based case-control study about the risk factor for neural tube defects was carried out.•The significant association between AGEs levels with NTDs occurrence was found.•Modest association between the BMI, age, glucose and NTDs were found.

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) plays an important role in diabetic embryopathy. AGE-mediated DNA damage could be a significant factor in the teratogenicity. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the association between the AGEs level and neural tube defects (NTDs) occurrence risk. Forty-eight mothers with NTD-affected pregnancies and 50 normal mothers were selected in this study. Blood were collected from the mothers and were assayed for serum AGEs, malondiadehyde (MDA) and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). Data were analyzed by logistic regression method. The study indicated that there were significant but modest lower prevalence for cases mothers on age, BMI and glucose levels compared with controls. NTD-affected mothers were significantly more likely to have higher AGEs levels (5.6 ± 0.48 AU vs. 4.6 ± 0.68 AU ρ < 0.01) than controls. The AGEs levels were not correlated with MDA and HbA1c in NTDs mothers (r2 = 0.0006 p = 0.8691 and r2 = 0.001 p = 0.8172, respectively). The conclusion is that AGEs might be associated with NTDs occurrence.