Low cholesterol during pregnancy might interfere with the proper functioning of the so-called sonic hedgehog gene, potentially resulting in a huge brain abnormality, the International Genetics Conference in Melbourne was told.
Professor Max Muenke, head of the medical genetics branch of the National Human Genome Research Institute in the US, told AAP after his presentation that cholesterol deficiency was linked to a condition known as HPE, which affects one in every 250 embryos and one in 10,000 babies at birth.
HPE occurs when the brain fails to divide into two halves and is the most common anomaly of the developing brain.
Ninety-nine per cent of affected embryos are spontaneously aborted and 90 per cent of live births die within a year.
Surviving babies suffer extreme mental retardation and most are unable to walk or talk.
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"You have to have cholesterol in the vicinity of this protein (so) it can act as it is supposed to act."
