Maternal influences on congenital craniofacial malformations.

Congenital craniofacial malformations represent an extremely complex biomedical problem area. The complexity includes early detection, diagnosis, treatment, habilitation, and, of course, prevention. The genetic and environmental issues which appear to interact and result in congenital malformations are becoming better understood. Rapid advances in mouse and human immunogenetics indicate several possible explanations as to why some individuals acquire certain birth defects whereas other individuals do not express congenital malformations. Recent discoveries concerning the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and associations with a number of human malformations have stimulated interesting speculations concerning genetic and environmental factors which might be responsible for predispositions to congenital malformations. Of particular interest is the possible function of the major histocompatibility complex of the mother during early stages of embryogenesis and how this assembly of genes may confer susceptibility to environmentally induced birth defects in mouse and human reproduction.