[Progress report. Possibilities and limitations of the in vitro technic for prenatal toxicologic studies]

Considering the variety of problems of the prenatal toxicity test the in vitro methods hitherto existing in this field are discussed according to their degree of complexity (cell culture, mass culture of dispersed cells, organ culture, whole embryo culture) within their limitations and possibilities. In this connection special attention is focussed to the use of human tissue for testing basic mechanisms of the developmental biology and for toxicity tests.