Teratology

Teratology ( altgr. τέρας Teras "Monster" and -logy ) is the study of the causes of birth defects caused by environmental factors ( teratogens ).

, The objectives are, what chemical substances, physical agents or viruses lead to deformities in the development phase of animals and humans. A fundamental discovery of Teratology is the existence of vulnerable stages in prenatal development. During these phases, different organ systems are different sensitive to teratogens.

History

Reports of malformations can be found early in the story, such as in ancient Greek scholars or in the Bible. Until the 16th century, these phenomena have been called " freak of nature " ( Pliny the Elder) dismissed or interpreted as an omen. The latter led to the previous name "Monster" (lat. monstrum of monere " warn "). Ambroise Paré published in 1573 a work in which he states, among other inheritance, mechanical action, and disease of the fetus as potential causes of error in prenatal development. As a science, the Teratology established by the work of French zoologists Étienne and Isidore Geoffroy Saint- Hilaire and the German anatomist Johann Friedrich Meckel. Geoffroy Saint- Hilaire examined first, what environmental influences triggered malformations in the germ vertebrate development by induced malformations in chick embryos. Meckel the first to describe systematically different malformations of the human embryo.