Department of Teratology

The Department of Teratology focuses on experimental and clinical teratology with the aim of contributing to our knowledge of normal and pathological development, the ethiopathogenesis of developmental anomalies, and possibilities for their prevention. Only a small portion of inborn defects in man can be explained either by prenatal exposure to a harmful external factor (15 % of cases) or by genetic reasons (20 % of cases). Most developmental defects (65 %) are thought to result from prenatal exposure to the combined effect of several sub-threshold doses of external factors that act either simultaneously or sequentially; a genetic predisposition is presumed in some of these cases. In the Department, the causes and mechanisms that are responsible for the origin of developmental defects induced by environmental and/or genetic factors are investigated. In these studies, two experimental models are used (developing chick embryo and developing mouse dentition), as well as a clinical/epidemiological approach. The origin of external malformations, especially of orofacial clefts, is a pivotal research topic of the Laboratory of Embryogenesis (M. Peterka). The Laboratory of Odontogenesis (R. Peterkova) focuses on tooth development under normal, pathological, and experimental conditions.