Prenatal limb development and its pathology

Limb defects are the second most common congenital disease in children. They occur in the prenatal period and are most often caused by genetic defects or chromosomal abnormalities. Limb defects can also be caused by the action of various teratogens, which can disrupt the development of the fetus. The prenatal development of a child is an extremely complicated sequence of a large number of interconnected events, which, despite considerable advances and discoveries in the field of molecular biology over the last few decades, we still do not fully understand. The present thesis tries to summarize the problem of limb defects from their origin, through possible causes to several diseases that are associated with limb anomalies. Improvement of our knowledge in the field of limb development and defects associated with it is important for accurate prenatal diagnosis and subsequent successful treatment of patients