Teratogenic Effect of Dopamine on the Embryonic Chick Heart

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To investigate the teratogenic potential of dopamine using a topical method of application to the developing Korean native chick embryo. METHODS: A 5 pg(0.05cc) of dopamine was applied to a 3-days-old chick embryo and the same amount of saline solution was applied as control. The embryo was then returned to the incubator and monitored. After 3 weeks the embryo was sacrificed and examined for cardiovascular malformation. RESULTS: The survival rate of the dopamine-administered group was not significantly lower than that of the control group(32.2% vs 41.5%). Cardiovascular malformation rates between the two groups were 14.3% and 2.6%, respectively. The dopamine-administered group had significant higher malformation rate(P=0.049). The type of malformation was ventricular septal defect and no aortic arch anomaly. In the control group, one trabecular type was observed. In the dopamineadministered group, malformations were 3 trabecular ventricular septal defects(VSDs), 2 infracrista VSDs, 1 inlet VSD and 1 large supracrista VSD. These results were quite different from each other. CONCLUSION: We proposed that low doses of dopamine influence the cardiovascular morphogenesis through -1 receptor weakly or through dopaminergic receptor.