Fetal development is a highly choreographed process.
But all too often it is disrupted when a mother is exposed to a teratogen - an agent known to cause a variety of birth defects. There is, says toxicologist Steven Holladay. The name comes from the influence the mother's immune system can have in assuring fetal development remains on track. Recognizing the tremendous impact this could have on the number of babies born with birth defects every year, Holladay and his team of researchers at Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine set out to discover just how this magic really works. Scientists have reported that injecting pregnant mice with enough of an inert substance will alert and set into action one of the body's frontline immune cells called macrophages.