Background: Adolescents diagnosed with epilepsy are patients who need specific care, especially girls of childbearing age. Considering that two the main antiepileptic medications can have teratogenic effects, it is extremely important these receive adequate guidance in their process maturation and introduction to adulthood, without prejudice seizure control.

Isotretinoin (13-cis-retinoic acid [13CRA], Accutane) is used for the treatment of dermatological diseases. Isotretinoin is, however, teratogenic in animals and humans. The mechanism of action of its teratogenicity is still not clearly identified. It has little or no binding properties to cytosolic retinoid-binding proteins or nuclear retinoid receptors (RAR, RXR). One hypothesis is that the te...

The teratogenic effect of rubella virus in humans has now been well documented (Ingalls, Plotkin, Meyer & Parkman, 1967) and virus isolation studies have suggested that rubella virus causes embryopathy by actually infecting the cells of the developing foetus (Alford, Neva & Weller, 1964). However, a laboratory animal model is required for controlled studies of the teratogenic activity of rubell...

Although the potency of trypan blue as a teratogenic agent in rodents has been known for almost twenty years the mechanism of its action remains obscure. The dye produces a variety of biological effects (see review by Beck & Lloyd, 1966) and most of these have at some time been suggested as possibly relevant to its teratogenicity. The investigation of such correlations would clearly be assisted...

Methomyl is an oxime carbamate pesticide that is widely used in the Philippines. This insecticide is known to be an endocrine disrupting chemical and a potent genotoxic in mammalian cells. However, limited studies were conducted specifically on its direct effects on estrous cycle and its teratogenic effect. This study aimed to (a) assess the effect of methomyl on the body weight and on the estr...

Certain short-chain carboxylic acids (SCCA) appear to share a common teratogenic potential, although the structural requirements for activity remain obscure. By using a whole rat embryo culture model system, several biochemical processes have been examined, either as potential initial sites of teratogenic action or as early steps in the pathway to malformation. Valproate, methoxyacetate, and bu...

Congenital malformations now represent the largest single cause of mortality in the infant of the diabetic mother. The mechanism by which diabetes exerts its teratogenic effects is not known. This study evaluated whether arachidonic acid might be involved, a possibility raised by the role of arachidonic acid in palatal elevation and fusion, processes analogous to neural tube folding and fusion....