Inositol deficiency increases the susceptibility to neural tube defects of genetically predisposed (curly tail) mouse embryos in vitro.

Curly tail (ct/ct) mouse embryos, which have a genetic predisposition for neural tube defects (NTD), were grown in culture from the 2-5 somite stage, before the initiation of neurulation, up to the 22-24 somite stage, when closure of the anterior neural tube is normally complete. The embryos were cultured in whole rat serum or in extensively dialysed serum supplemented with glucose, amino acids, and vitamins, with inositol omitted or added at concentrations of 2, 10, 20, and 50 mg/l. Two strains were used as controls; CBA mice, which are related to curly tails, and an unrelated PO stock. It was found that ct/ct embryos were particularly sensitive to inositol deficiency; both they and the CBA embryos showed a similar high incidence of cranial NTD after culture in inositol deficient medium (12/17 and 11/18, respectively). Furthermore, the lowest dose of inositol had no effect on the frequency of head defects in ct/ct mice, though it halved the incidence in CBA embryos. With higher inositol concentrations, the majority of ct/ct embryos completed head closure normally, and their development was generally similar to that obtained in whole serum. PO embryos showed a lower proportion (5/19) of cranial NTD in the inositol deficient medium than the other two strains, and this was further reduced by even the lowest inositol dose.