[Infrahepatic bile duct proliferation in the gestating rat treated with 4,4'-diaminodiphenylmethane (4,4DDPM)]

We have attempted to produce experimentally the histological hepatic lesions observed in the case of biliary infant atresia. Though the etiopathogeny of this disease remains uncertain, the possibility of a toxic origin for the liver was evoked. Female rats were treated per os from the 10th to the 20th day of gestation with 44' DDPM, a molecule able to provoke an intra-hepatic biliary ductular proliferation. If we always observed hepatic lesions in pregnant rats sacrificed 24 hours before delivery, in some cases we also noticed the existence of macro- and microscopic hepatic lesions in the foetus. With a dose superior to LD 50, we have sometimes observed neural tube defects without hepatic lesions.