The preferential associations between specific cleft types with dental phenotypes suggest dental anomalies can be used as clinical markers to define the subphenotype isolated cleft lip and palate.

Background-Clefts of the lip and/or palate (cleft lip/palate) are notable for their complex etiology. The WNT pathway regulates multiple developmental processes including craniofacial development and may play a role in cleft lip/palate and other defects of craniofacial development such as tooth agenesis. Variations in WNT genes have been recently associated with cleft lip/ palate in humans. In addition, two WNT genes, Wnt3 and Wnt9B, are located in the clf1 cleft locus in mice.

BACKGROUND Oral clefts are common congenital anomalies and result from defects during embryogenesis. The complex etiology is evident by the number of genes and signaling pathways involved in craniofacial development. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their inhibitors (TIMPs) are responsible for tissue remodeling during craniofacial development. METHODS In this study, we investigated the association of polymorphisms in 14 biologically relevant MMP and TIMP genes in 494 individuals with oral clefts and 413 control individuals from Brazil. Genotypes were generated using Taqman chemistry. Analyses were performed using PLINK software. RESULTS Polymorphisms in MMP3 (rs522616) and TIMP2 (rs8179096) showed significant association with all cleft types (all clefts, cleft lip/palate, and cleft palate; p ≤ 0.002). An additional family‐based dataset (881 case‐parent trios) from the United States was used for confirmation of the association findings (p < 0.05). Analysis of gene‐gene interaction suggests that MMP3 and TIMP2 may interactively contribute to a cleft phenotype. CONCLUSIONS This study provides new evidence that variation in MMP3 may contribute to nonsyndromic oral clefts and further supports the involvement of TIMP2 as a cleft susceptibility gene. Although additional studies are still necessary to unveil the exact mechanism by which MMP3 and TIMP2 would contribute to a cleft phenotype, allelic polymorphisms in these genes and their interactions may partly explain the variance of individual susceptibility to oral clefts. Birth Defects Research (Part A) 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the quality of life (QoL) of children previously treated for cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) and compare with non-cleft children. Method: A case-control study with 70 children between 5 and 12 years old was carried out. The case group consisted of 35 individuals previously treated for non-syndromic CL/P and presently receiving assessment at a rehabilitation hospital in Brazil. The children had received primary surgical treatment for CL/P reconstruction during early childhood. The control group consisted of 35 healthy children selected to ensure close similarity to the cleft group in age, gender and socioeconomic status. QoL was measured using the AUQEI questionnaire. Results: Cleft lip and palate had no significant influence on the QoL in children (p=0.44). A higher percentage of the cleft lip and palate group of children reported a lower QoL than the cleft lip or cleft palate groups. Gender had no significant difference on the quality of life in CL/P children (p=0.2) and in control group (p=1.0). Conclusion: The QoL in children with CL/P was found to be similar to the non-cleft group. Our results confirm that clefts repaired during earlier childhood associated with a health care program, including psychological support, is beneficial for CL/P children.

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