Cardiac and non-cardiac malformations produced by mercury in hamsters

Little is known regarding a human syndrome of congential malformations characterized by ectopia cordis, internal cardiac defects and abnormalities of the diaphragm and ventral body wall. Most papers regarding this human syndrome are clinical reports describing the characteristics and management of specific cases. The observation that a similar syndrome, designated CNC for cardiac and non-cardiac malformations, can be produced by mercury in hamsters prompted the study reported in this paper. Study goals were: to study the effect of treating pregnant hamsters at different times during embryonic organogenesis to determine the time which produces the highest incidence of the CNC syndrome and whether different treatment times modify the morphological characteristics of the inclusive malformations; and to study the structural features of all mercury-induced external and internal abnormalities of the CNC syndrome in late gestation fetuses. Refs.