Friday. DecembcM' 13. 1968
THE NEW BERN MIRROR. NEW BERN, N. C.
Page Five
RESEARCH FOR HEALTH
HKPWFMM
THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
KTWm, lUlYLMI
Alligators Aid Research
The dog is supposed to be
man’s best friend, but how
many people know they should
add the less attractive rat or
alligator to a list of animal
friends? Nevertheless, in matters
of health a variety of animals
often are unrecognized but very
good friends.
For example, mice, dogs,
cats, and monkeys occasionally
share the personal problem of
about 6,000 babies born each
year in the United Slates. These
babies are victims of cleft lip
or palate, and the similarly
affected animals are helping
scientists to learn more about
this defect.
In the last decade possible
causes of clefling have been
earnestly studied under the
leadership or with the support
of the National Institute of
Dental Research, one of the
components of the National In
stitutes of Health. Because they
realize that only when the
causes are known will preven
tion be possible, the investiga
tors of cleft lip and palate are
exploring a very difficult medi
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cal terrain. So far, although no
cause is positively proved, the
evidence suggests that a cleft
in the palate alone is probably
a different disorder than a cleft
in the lip, which may occur
with or without a cleft palate.
Because clefts sometimes run
in families, hereditary flaws are
suspected as one cause. To
study inheritance factors, ani
mals in which spontaneous
clefts appear are carefully
nurtured to adulthood in order
to conduct breeding experi
ments. Because rearing them is
difficult, it will be some years
before inheritance patterns can
be worked out.
Environmental hazards dur
ing pregnancy are also thought
to cause some clefts. Here again
many animals arc helping sci
entists to learn what some of
the dangers may be. As one
might expect, inexpensive,
rapidly maturing rodents, es
pecially rats and mice, head
the list. However, other animal
groups aiding science are carni
vores such as dogs and ferrets,
ungulates represented by the
pig, and primates including
monkey and man.
The influences of certain
drugs, hormones, vitamins,
physical pressures, allergic re
actions, and lack of oxygen are
studied in these pregnant ani
mals in order to learn whether
or not these influences may lead
to cleft offspring. None of
these factors is known to pro
duce clefts in man, yet under
experimental conditions all of
them can cause clefts in ani
mals.
Long before birth, tissues on
each side of the head usually
turn toward each other and
fuse. A cleft results from a
failure to fuse. But scientists
question whether the covering
of these embryonic tissues never
fused or whether they fused
temporarily but separated later.
Old you reach out a hand?
Did you find him the road, or
did you Just let him go by with
his load?--James W, Foley.
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