Uncouplers of Oxidative Phosphorylation and Teratogenic Activity of Insulin

Abstract

TREATMENT with insulin has well-established teratogenic effects in chick development. When administered during the earliest stages of incubation (first 2 days), it is responsible for the occurrence of rumplessness (chiefly absence of the tail vertebræ), whereas somewhat later (4th or 5th) day) it leads to a syndrome of micromelia and abnormalities of the beak (namely, a shortened upper beak or parrot beak). During these later stages, but not in the early ones, the teratogenic activity of insulin is strikingly exaggerated by the simultaneous administration of chlorpromazine¹. The amounts of chlorpromazine which produce this effect were non-teratogenic and only moderately toxic if given alone.