Embryonic development is a highly coordinated set of processes that depend on hierarchies of signaling and gene regulatory networks, and the disruption of such networks may underlie many cases of chemically induced birth defects. The antiepileptic drug valproic acid (VPA) is a potent inducer of neural tube defects (NTDs) in human and mouse embryos. As with many other developmental toxicants how...

Exposure to various medications and medical conditions during pregnancy is often inevitable. Most of these exposures do not carry an elevated risk of congenital malformations. Nevertheless, misperceptions of the risks associated with different exposures in pregnancy are common and may potentially lead to wrong decisions. Unrealistically high maternal teratogenic risk perception may lead to abru...

It was reported that adenine causes fetal malformations with high frequency when 250 or 300 mkikg of the compound was injected I. p. (.intraperitoneally) to pregnant mice during major organogenesis (Fujii and Nishimura, 1970 Fujii, 1970). Chaube and Murphy (1969) administered the compound i. R. to female rats on day 12 of gestation at various dosages less than 250 mg/kg, but did not find .any e...

The embryonic/fetotoxic effects of DEHP on pregnant mice (ddY-Slc female x CBA male) were studied. DEHP was administered orally in dosages of 0.05 ml/kg to 30.0 mg/kg on day 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 of gestation. A single administration of DEHP over 0.1 ml/kg (1/300 of LD50) on day 7 of gestation decreased the numbers and the body weight of living fetuses, whereas no significant changes in the numbers ...