Cell death in normo- and teratogenesis. II. Cell death in teratogenesis

The second part of the review presents the main facts and problems with respect to the role of cell death in teratogenesis (pathogenetic cell death). After mentioning the first approaches to the domain, reference is made (in order to avoid repetition) to the synthetic article published by Menkes et al. (1970), as to a series of investigations and results up to that date. Subsequently, more recent contributions are presented, first of all a series of results obtained in the Laboratory of Embryology and Teratology, Timişcara. The genetic background and the morphology of pathogenetic cell death are briefly discussed. As a conclusion, the scheme (published in 1970) of cell death linked teratogenesis is reproduced in a somewhat modified and extended way.