RESUMO
Objective: To study the relationship between the congenital cleft palate and development of the nasal capsule and nasal septum. Methods: 30 pairs of NMIR fetal mouse at the embryo age of 16～17 days were used.In each pair there was one euploid mouse without cleft palate and one trisomy 18 mouse with cleft palate.Sixty maxillae were precisely orientated in the coronal plane and serially sectioned at 7 ?m thickness. With the aid of computer imaging analysis system the width,height and area of the nasal capsule, nasal septum and cartilage of nasal septum were measured and compared quantitatively between the cleft group and non-cleft group. Results: The values of height and area of the nasal capsule, nasal septum and cartilage of nasal septum in cleft foetuses were smaller than those in non-cleft foetuses (P