Effects of retinoic acid on the incidence of neural tube defects and other malformations in mice with the quinky gene

Matings between normal young adult ac/ae female mice and heterozygous Quinky BALB/c males were used to study reported teratogenic and/or preventive effects of retinoic acid (RA) utilizing a mutation that produces neural tube defects (NTDs). The prenatal administration of RA at 10 or 20 mg/kg body weight increased the incidence of exencephaly and other malformations in fetuses with the Quinky gene. Neither curative nor beneficial effects of RA were observed on tail abnormalities at any dose rate used on day 8 or day 9 of gestation. On the contrary, RA proved to have, in addition to its teratogenic effect, lethal effects on fetuses.Corresponding Author: Dr.Faisal M. Abou-Tarbush Zoology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia. Email: ftarbush@ksu.edu.s