A Teratology Test System which Utilizes Postnatal Growth and Viability in the Mouse

Abstract

The necessity of testing chemical agents for their potential to induce teratogenic effects has led to the establishment of standard teratology protocols (WHO, 1967; Health Protection Branch, 1977). These involve the exposure of pregnant animals to exogenous agents during the period of major embryonic organogenesis and the subsequent examination of the fetuses for soft visceral tissue and skeletal anomalies. These protocols are labor intensive and require highly trained personnel, factors which contribute to the considerable expense of such testing. A variety of potential screens, including developmental anomalies in invertebrates and lower vertebrates (Johnson, 1980; Davis et al., 1981), growth inhibition of mammalian cell cultures (Freese et al., 1979; Wilk et al., 1980), effects on organ culture (Kochar and Aydelotte, 1974), effects on cultured mammalian embryos (Kochar, 1975; Chatot et al., 1980), and in vivo embryotoxicity (Marhan and Jelinek, 1979), have been discussed as possible screens that would allow the prioritization of environmental agents for testing by standard methodologies. There have also been several excellent reviews of this general area in recent years (Wilson, 1978; Barrach and Neubert, 1980).