A review of the data supports the suggestion of Knox (1974) that the sex ratio and incidence of anencephalics vary together within populations, as they are known to do between populations. There seems some doubts, though, whether Knox was correct in hypothesising that the sex ratio of anencephalics varies with their incidence in relation to the dizygotic twinning rate. The pattern of variation ...

Aplasia cutis congenita is the congenital absence of skin mostcommonly affecting the scalp. No definite etiology is available butmultiple causes such as intrauterine infection, fetal exposure tococaine, heroin, alcohol or antithyroid drugs, vascular disruption,genetic causes, syndromes and teratogens have been suggested.We present an infant with extensive aplasia cutis of the trunk andthigh. He...

Congenital anomalies are already the second cause of infant mortality in Brazil, as in many other middle-income countries in Latin America. Birth defects are a result of both genetic and environmental factors, but a multifactorial etiology has been more frequently observed. Here, we address the environmental causes of birth defects - or teratogens - as a public health issue and present their me...

Environmental agents including ethanol, 13-cis retinoic acid (RA, Accutane), the antimetabolite methotrexate, periods of hypoxia, ionizing radiation or hyperthermic stress, when administered acutely to pregnant experimental animals, induce stage-dependent craniofacial malformations comparable to those in corresponding human teratogen syndromes. Acute treatment regimens have allowed analysis of ...

The number of chemicals in commerce which have not been evaluated for potential developmental toxicity is large. Because of the time and expense required by conventional developmental toxicity tests, an abbreviated assay is needed that will preliminarily evaluate otherwise untested chemicals to help prioritize them for conventional testing. A proposed short-term in vivo assay has been used in a...

Rat postimplantation whole-embryo culture (WEC) is a promising alternative test for the assessment of developmental toxicity. Toxicogenomic-based approaches may improve the predictive ability of the WEC model by providing a means to identify compound-specific mechanistic responses associated with embryotoxicity in vivo. Furthermore, alterations in gene expression may serve as a sensitive, objec...

Congenital abnormalities are the leading cause of infant mortalities in the United States (25%) and across the world [1]. Public health interventions have included reducing maternal disease, prenatal care of mothers, reduction of exposure to teratogens (agent that can disturb the development of an embryo or fetus), and nutritional interventions [2]. Potentially the most significant nutritional ...

Cutis Marmorata Telangiectatica Congenita (CMTC) is a rare, sporadic condition usually present at birth characterized by localized or generalized persistent cutis marmorata, telangiectasia and phlebectasia. We report a preterm female newborn, the third child of non-related caucasian parents, with CMTC at birth who showed typical cutaneous features and monolateral congenital glaucoma. The pathog...

Since the initial observations over 25 years ago that alcohol (ethanol) is a human teratogen (Jones et al., ’73; Jones and Smith, ’73), concerns regarding the prenatal effects of alcohol as a significant public health problem have been raised throughout the world. Much effort has gone into the delineation of a physical and neurobehavioral phenotype, numerous studies have focused on the birth pr...