Somite necrosis and developmental malformations induced by vitamin A in the golden hamster
The primary teratogenic effects of vitamin A in young embryos, when the vitamin is administered to their pregnant mothers are unknown. The morphogenesis of experimental cranioschisis and sacral rachischisis, commonly induced by vitamin A, is also still unknown. A variety of methods is now available for the induction of anencephaly (cranioschisis) and sacral spina bifida (sacral rachischisis) in some experimental animals. A method frequently used is the administration of a high dose of vitamin A to the pregnant mother. This has been employed in the rat (Cohlan, 1953; Giroud & Martinet, 1955) and in mice (Kalter & Warkany, 1961). In the present experiments, the golden hamster was used as the experimental animal. This study is divided into two parts. The first part consists in the establishment of a method for the induction of developmental malformations in the golden hamster by vitamin A.