Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have discovered a gene critical to the development of the human heart and that mutations in the gene lead to congenital heart defects ? the leading noninfectious cause of death in newborns.
GATA4 is only the second gene to have been identified as a cause of isolated congenital heart disease not associated with medically identified syndromes. The findings will be published in a future edition of the journal Nature and appear online today.