Read the magazine story to find out more.

Agricultural Research Service scientists are using lupines and other plants that cause physical defects in livestock to help develop surgical techniques for prenatal cleft repair in fetal goats—techniques that might someday be used to treat cleft palates in humans. Click the image for more information about it.

Asian grasslands may hold global promise   Lambs' selenium needs scrutinized   New ARS Poisonous Plant Research Lab dedicated

ARS Research Helps Develop New Leads in Cleft Palate Repair

By Ann Perry
August 4, 2009

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) animal scientist Kip Panter is helping to develop remarkable new techniques for treating cleft palates in humans.

Panter works at the ARS Poisonous Plant Research Laboratory in Logan, Utah, where he studied why cows that graze on toxic lupines often give birth to calves affected by "crooked calf disease." These calves are usually born alive at full term, but they can have a number of skeletal defects, including contracture deformities and cleft palate.

Panter found that pregnant cows usually begin to graze on lupines at the same time their unborn calves begin movements essential for normal development. During this time-which is also when the two palatal shelves close to form the roof of the mouth-toxins in the lupines can cross the placental barrier and temporarily induce fetal immobility. If the fetus isn't physically active during this interlude, the position of the tongue prevents palatal closure, and a cleft palate results.

Panter used these findings as a basis for developing a goat model to study the cause of cleft palates in the unborn kid goats. These animals were then used to test methods for prenatal cleft repair surgery.

After they were born, the baby goats that had undergone prenatal cleft repair had palates with muscle and mucosal structures that were virtually indistinguishable from the palates of goats that had never developed clefting defects. The prenatal surgeries also substantially repaired clefted bony structures, and the goats were able to nurse successfully and vocalize without impediments. In addition, the repaired palates had none of the scarring associated with cleft palate either before or after conventional cleft palate repair.

Prenatal surgery is risky for both mother and fetus, and these techniques are not approved yet for use in humans. However, this research could provide plastic surgeons with alternatives for repairing cleft-affected humans if and when other protocols for human fetal surgery are available.

Read more about the research in the August 2009 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.

ARS is the principal intramural scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.