An embryological study of harelip in mice

✍ Scribed by Reed, Sheldon C.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1933
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 537 KB
• Volume: 56
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0003-276X
• DOI: 10.1002/ar.1090560202

✦ Synopsis

has been shown that harelip in mice is inherited as a recessive mendelian character subject to some variation in expression. The purpose of the present paper is to describe the steps by which this anatomical anomaly becomes established in the development of the mouse.

Harelip, similar to that of the mouse, occurs in a small percentage of human beings, and in swine, dogs, and some other animals. There can be little doubt that, in many of these cases, as in that of the mouse, heredity is involved in the genesis of the defect. Hence the interest which attaches to its further investigation.

I n this study timed embryos were obtained by the following procedure. Mice of opposite sex, which had been previously tested and found to produce a high percentage of harelip and cleft palate young, were allowed to remain together for 1 hour each day. The female was then inspected for the presence of a vaginal plug. If a plug was present, the female was considered to have been impregnated and was later killed when the embryos had attained the age desired.

The embryos were fixed in either Bouin's picro-formol, or Zenker's fluid, sectioned, and stained in 1 of 3 different stain combinations, viz., a ) Mallory 's triple stain, b) haemalum and light green, or, c ) Delafield's haematoxylin and eosin. The most satisfactory treatment was as follows; 2 minutes