Half a century ago, thalidomide was widely prescribed to pregnant women as a sedative but was found to be teratogenic, causing multiple birth defects. Today, thalidomide is still used in the treatment of leprosy and multiple myeloma, although how it causes limb malformation and other developmental defects is unknown. Here, we identified cereblon (CRBN) as a thalidomide-binding protein. CRBN for...

The Sprague-Dawley rat was used to demonstrate the effect of nitrous oxide, with and without folinic pretreatment, on reproductive indices and fetal development. One of the objectives of the investigation was to test the hypothesis that at least some of the teratogenic effect of nitrous oxide is related to interference with folate metabolism. Groups of animals were exposed to 70-75% nitrous oxi...

Isotretinoin is a known teratogen affecting the neuronal differentiation in developing brain. Apart from its effects on brain and other craniofacial malformations, it is also known to cause failure of detachment of the lens from the surface ectoderm. Interestingly very little is known about the teratogenic effect of isotretinoin on the development of eye. Hence in the present study we evaluated...

IN THIS study, the principle of using a physiological fluid load to produce a disturbance in the sleep of normal subjects has been utilized both for the evaluation of the non-barbiturate hypnotic, ethchlorvynol ('Arvynol': Pfizer) and to compare its hypnotic effect with glutethimide ('Doriden': Ciba). The technique, which is based on the work of Isaacs (1957 a,b.) and Condouris, Costa and Bonny...

The discovery that ethylene glycol monomethyl ether (EGME) could affect the testis and the developing fetus in laboratory animals prompted further work to understand the effect of EGME and to examine additional glycol ethers to see if they showed EGME's reprotoxicity. Propylene glycol monomethyl ether (PGME) was shown not to cause testicular atrophy or to affect the development of rats at 600 p...

Embryotoxicity and Fetotoxicity of Inhaled or Ingested Vinylidene Chloride in Rats and Rabbits. MURRAY, F. J., NITSCHKE, K. D., RAMPY, L. W., AND SCHWETZ, B. A. (1979). Toxicol. App/. Pharmacal. 49, 189-202. The teratogenic potential of inhaled or ingested vinylidene chloride was evaluated in Sprague-Dawley rats and New Zealand white rabbits. Both species were exposed to the test material by in...

Aflatoxins are toxins produced by the fungus Aspergillus parasiticus and flavus. They colorless, cannot be detected under normal light, odorless contaminated foods most often do not have any special or bad smell. Environmental factors such as temperature, vectors causing grain damage an important effect on favoring colonization of production aflatoxins. contaminate agriculture products worldwid...

BACKGROUND Caffeine is teratogenic in animal studies when administered at high concentrations. Previous review articles have concluded that maternal caffeine consumption does not influence the risk of congenital anomalies. These reviews were narrative rather than systematic. The objective of the current systematic review is to provide a critical appraisal of epidemiologic evidence. METHODS A ...