Women who have a FOXD1 mutation gene are at ‘higher risk of losing their baby’


  • French researchers assessed the impact of having a mutated FOXD1 gene 
  • They found a large numbers of women who had a miscarriage carried it
  • But in its normal state it helped to protect women for a healthy pregnancy
  • Experts hope the finding could allow for more effective diagnosis in future 

Stephen Matthews For Mailonline

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Just hearing the word miscarriage fills the minds of many pregnant women with dread – scared their unborn child will be stolen from them.

But now scientists say certain women are at increased risk of losing their baby in the first five weeks of pregnancy. 

Having a mutated gene makes it more likely for pregnant women to have a string of miscarriages, a study found.

But the FOXD1 gene was also discovered to have a protective quality when in its normal state.

Having a mutated gene makes it more likely for pregnant women to have a string of miscarriages, a study found

Experts hope the finding could allow for more effective diagnosis of a potential miscarriage and treatment for affected women.

A team of French researchers investigated 556 women who had been affected by recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA).

It is defined as a woman suffering three or more miscarriages in a row within the first five weeks of pregnancy.

It is thought to occur in around one in every 100 pregnancies.

A control group of 271 women who didn’t suffer from the condition were also included in the study.

Experts hope the finding could allow for more effective diagnosis of a potential miscarriage and treatment for affected women

‘We found that women with FOXD1 mutations have a statistically high risk of suffering RSA,’ the team wrote in the Royal Society Journal Open Biology. 

While they also found the gene present in the control group – leading them to believe it could have a protective effect when in its normal state.

The gene was first pinpointed in laboratory mice who had high levels of embryonic resorption – otherwise known as a vanishing twin where a foetus dies during pregnancy and is reabsorbed by the other twin.

It is not the first gene involved in repeated miscarriage, though ‘functional evidence’ of their involvement has been rare, the team wrote.

This comes after a study last month found pregnant women who suffer from morning sickness are less likely to have a miscarriage.

Feeling sick and vomiting were linked with a 75 per cent reduction in the risk of losing a pregnancy, scientists discovered. 

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