Cocaine's Affect on Fetal Development

Paper Summary:

The paper gives a thorough description of the anomalies that can occur due to the maldevelopment of fetal tissues with the use and abuse of cocaine during pregnancy. It discusses malformations and medical procedures performed on fetuses and babies with certain malformations.

From the Paper:

"In order to understand the negative affects of cocaine on fetal development, you must first understand normal fetal development. Cocaine mostly affects central nervous system development and urogenital development, of which I will elaborate on the urogenital system. The terminal part of the hindgut in the fetus is the cloaca, which is lined with endoderm and is in contact with the surface ectoderm at the cloacal membrane. The cloaca receives the allantois. Between the allantois and the hindgut, the cloaca is divided into dorsal and ventral parts by a group of mesenchymal cells called the urorectal septum. This septum grows caudally towards the cloacal membrane, and extensions of the septum produce infoldings in the walls of the cloaca that eventually fuse together forming a partition. The cloaca is now divided into a ventral urogenital sinus and a dorsal rectum. The urogenital sinus is then divided into three parts: the vesical, pelvic, and phallic parts. The bladder develops from the vesical part and from parts of the mesonephric ducts and the urethra develops from the phallic part. The mesonephric ducts are incorporated into the wall of the bladder and a ureteric bud forms at the base of these ducts. From this bud the ureters are formed and enter the bladder in a different location than the mesonephric ducts. The metanephros at the end of the ureters will eventually form the permanent kidneys. (Moore and Persaud, 1998)."

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