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Updated: Jul 27, 2025
Minimally Invasive Embryo Transfer and Embryo Vitrification at the Optimal Embryo Stage in Rabbit Model
Published on: May 16, 2019
Maternal Thalidomide Treatment and Cell Division in Cultured Rabbit Embryos: Automated Image Analysis of
W G McBRIDE1, P A Stokes1, P H Vardy1
1Foundation 41, The Women's Hospital, Crown Street, Surry Hills, N. S. W. 2010 Australia.
Abstract:
To determine whether thalidomide dysmorphogenesis was preceded by a changed pattern of cell division, embryos from thalidomide treated rabbits were cultured for four hours in a medium containing 3 H-thymidine. Automated image analysis of serial autoradiographs of the embryos revealed no focus of increased or decreased cell division in the neural tube or limb bud. Thalidomide pretreatment caused a general decrease in cell division at 10 days post coitum. A similar effect was observed only in those 10 3/4 day embryos whose status in culture was low. It was concluded that unlike methotrexate, the dysmorphogenic effect of thalidomide could not be attributed to a generally suppressed mitotic rate; rather, this teratogen preprogrammes dysmorphogenesis before the onset of the limb bud outgrowth (10 days) with the result that teratogenesis is manifest only during limb development after 11 days.
