Trypan blue induced teratogenesis of rat embryos cultivated in vitro

Trypan blue is known to produce embryonic abnormalities in a wide variety of animals, including rats (Gillman, Gilbert, Gillman & Spence, 1948), mice (Waddington & Carter, 1953; Hamburgh, 1954), amphibians (Waddington & Perry, 1956), chickens (Beaudoin & Wilson, 1958;Stéphan & Sutter, 1961), rabbits (Ferm, 1956), and hamsters (Ferm, 1958). Studies on the teratogenic action of this dye have also been made in culture (Mulherkar, 1960). Since the first observation of the teratogenic action of trypan blue in rat embryos (Gillman et al. 1948), two questions that have remained unanswered are (1) whether the dye acts directly on the embryo or via the maternal system, and (2) what determines the period during which the rat embryo is most sensitive to the dye.