ABSTRACT The development of a reliable method for the in vitro culture of rodent embryos during their organogenetic period, offered a great opportunity to improve testing methods to identify and characterize causes of abnormal development. This test, because of its adaptability, may be used for the screening of chemicals, for the individuation of proximate teratogens in known teratogenic chemicals, to understand the causes of abnormal development in maternal dysmetabolic diseases, and also to study specific mechanisms of action and pathogenic pathways of teratogenic agents. In this review some examples of the applications of rodent whole embryo culture in developmental toxicity studies are reported.
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