Effects of Excessive Folic Acid on Embryonic Development and Vangl1 Gene Expression in Mice

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of Vangl1 gene expression and on embryonic development, neural tube development by excessive folate in embryonic development. The study was carried out by adding excess folic acid (4 times the standard amount) in KM mouse feed. Then, observe the change of mouse embryo/fetal development and neural tube closure. At the same time, to explore the expression of the Vangl1 gene that is important in the planar cell polarity (PCP) signaling pathway by reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR). As shown in results: due to the addition of excess folic acid, mouse cleavage rate was too fast, different degrees of embryo degradation, development and embryonic age were inconsistent, and fetal development also shows the top of the brain was not closed, spina bifida, stunting and other malformations. At the molecular level, the pregnant mice were unable to detect the Vangl1 gene or the expression level was low from embryonic day (E)_1.0 to E_2.5, and the Vangl1 gene expression was down-regulated (P<0.05) of excess folic acid mice compare with standard group on E_9.5, E_10.5 and E_11.5. These findings suggest that excessive folic acid supplementation will cause adverse effects for embryo/fetal development during the perinatal period, while having a certain inhibitory effect on Vangl 1 expression which has close relationship with neural tube development.