SPINA bifida may be inherited, more often through the smother's side of the family according to an Irish Italian research team. The report, which will appear in the September issue of the American Journal Medical Geneitcs, links the occurrence of a type of spina bifida that occurs high in the lumbar spine with factors transmitted from the grandparents on the mother's side.
Spina bifida is a defect of the spine that may be severe enough to be fatal and may otherwise lead to problems of control of the lower body, including problems with walking.
This does not mean that fathers have no role in transmission of the illness, says the scientist who led the research, Dr Julianne Byrne of the Boyne Research Institute in Drogheda. "Genetic pathways inherited through the mother's side of the family seem to have the strongest influence, but these results suggest that other ways of inheriting spina bifida also exist," she says.