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Animal models of ventral body wall closure defects: A personal perspective on gastroschisis
Author(s) -
Williams Trevor
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
american journal of medical genetics part c: seminars in medical genetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.419
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1552-4876
pISSN - 1552-4868
DOI - 10.1002/ajmg.c.30179
Subject(s) - gastroschisis , closure (psychology) , perspective (graphical) , anatomy , biology , computer science , genetics , political science , artificial intelligence , law , pregnancy , fetus
Malformations affecting the ventral body wall comprise one of the leading categories of human birth defects. Gastroschisis is a particularly important body wall closure defect as its incidence is rising worldwide. Although the occurrence of such defects is relatively common their molecular and cellular basis is very poorly understood. A robust animal model system to study the etiology of gastroschisis would be very useful, but several problems currently hamper the identification of such a model. A concerted effort is required to recognize, characterize, and classify ventral body wall defects in animal model species so that progress can be made in determining the mechanisms of ventral body wall closure during human development as well as combating the increased incidence of gastroschisis worldwide. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.