Vitamin A Embryopathy

 

 

                                                                           A For Apples 

Apples Contain Vitamin A

Vitamin A 

Early History Of Vitamin A 

1950s–1960s: Retinoic Acid Identified

• Scientists isolated all-trans-retinoic acid and 13-cis-retinoic acid as metabolically active derivatives of vitamin A.

• Animal studies began showing that hypervitaminosis A during pregnancy could lead to fetal malformations.

Edward Warkany (1902-1992) was a pioneering Austrian pediatrician who is widely regarded as the "father of experimental teratology." His groundbreaking research in the mid-20th century revolutionized the understanding of birth defects, shifting the prevailing belief that they were solely genetic in origin to recognizing the significant role of environmental factors.

Early Life and Education in Austria: Warkany was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1902. He received his medical education there, which shaped his early clinical experiences and scientific curiosity

Migration to the United States: Due to the political climate and the rise of Nazism, Warkany, who was Jewish, emigrated from Austria to the United States in the late 1930s. He eventually settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he joined the Children's Hospital Research Foundation and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

                                      Edward Warkany is widely recognized and revered as the

                                                       "Father of Experimental Teratology."

Experimental Teratology and Pediatric Impact: His groundbreaking experiments, particularly with vitamin deficiencies (like vitamin A and riboflavin) in pregnant rats, definitively showed that environmental factors could cause congenital malformations

1967: Edward Warkany’s Landmark Work

• Dr. Edward Warkany, a pioneer in teratology, formally described vitamin A as a teratogen in mammals.
• He demonstrated that excess vitamin A administered to pregnant rodents caused craniofacial, cardiac, and neural tube defects.

Warkany is often credited with being the first to link excess vitamin A with congenital malformations in scientific literature.

1980s: Isotretinoin (Accutane) and Human Teratogenicity

• 1982: Isotretinoin (13-cis-retinoic acid) was approved for severe cystic acne under the brand name Accutane.
• Soon after, reports emerged of severe birth defects in infants born to women who took isotretinoin during pregnancy.

Clinical features described:

• Microtia/anotia
• Conotruncal heart defects
• Thymic hypoplasia
• CNS abnormalities

This became known as Isotretinoin Embryopathy.

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