Siegel M I, Mooney M P, Kimes K R, Todhunter J
Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, PA.
Cleft Palate J. 1987 Jul;24(3):190-9.
As part of an ongoing study of cleft palate fetal morphology, normal and dysmorphic development of the human fetal nasal capsule was studied in a cross-sectional sample of 29 human fetuses (20 "normal" and 9 cleft), ranging in age from 8 to 21 postmenstrual weeks. The specimens were celloidin embedded, sectioned at 20 microns, and every tenth section stained with hematoxylin and eosin. A computer reconstruction technique was applied to produce three-dimensional representations of the nasal capsule, nasal septal cartilage, and nasal airway. Qualitatively, the cleft palate nasal capsule exhibited gross abnormalities including cartilaginous nasal septum deformities, abnormal septal volume and hypertrophy, reduced nasal airway and capsule volumes, and abnormal spatial relationships between the nasal capsule components. These results suggest that the reduced nasal airways, noted clinically in cleft perinates, may be a function of an interaction of nasal capsule deficiency and nasal septum hypertrophy. However, when lengths and volumes were plotted against fetal postmenstrual age, producing fetal "growth" curves, no significant differences (p greater than 0.05) were noted for growth rates (slopes) or nasal capsule size between the normal and cleft palate fetal samples. Curvilinear regression analysis revealed that both normal and cleft palate nasal capsule and septum lengths changed in a sigmoidal fashion, with the steepest increases from 13 to 17 weeks. In contrast, nasal capsule, airway, and septum volumes changed curvilinearly, showing slow relative growth rates from 8 to 17 weeks, which increased sharply from 18 to 21 weeks. Results suggest that from 8 to 21 weeks prenatally, normal and cleft palate specimens exhibited a similar pattern of fetal nasal capsule development that was characterized by an initial anteroposterior elongation followed by circumferential (i.e., volumetric) growth.
作为一项正在进行的腭裂胎儿形态学研究的一部分，在29例人类胎儿（20例“正常”胎儿和9例腭裂胎儿）的横断面样本中研究了人类胎儿鼻囊的正常和畸形发育，这些胎儿的月经龄为8至21周。标本用火棉胶包埋，切成20微米厚的切片，每隔十张切片用苏木精和伊红染色。应用计算机重建技术生成鼻囊、鼻中隔软骨和鼻气道的三维图像。定性地说，腭裂鼻囊表现出明显的异常，包括鼻中隔软骨畸形、鼻中隔体积异常和肥大、鼻气道和鼻囊体积减小以及鼻囊各组成部分之间的空间关系异常。这些结果表明，临床上在腭裂围产期观察到的鼻气道减少可能是鼻囊缺陷和鼻中隔肥大相互作用的结果。然而，当将长度和体积与胎儿月经龄作图，绘制胎儿“生长”曲线时，正常胎儿和腭裂胎儿样本在生长速率（斜率）或鼻囊大小方面没有显著差异（p大于0.05）。曲线回归分析显示，正常胎儿和腭裂胎儿的鼻囊和鼻中隔长度均呈S形变化，在13至17周时增长最为迅速。相比之下，鼻囊、气道和鼻中隔体积呈曲线变化，在8至17周时相对生长速率较慢，在18至21周时急剧增加。结果表明，在产前8至21周，正常胎儿和腭裂胎儿标本表现出相似的胎儿鼻囊发育模式，其特征是最初的前后伸长，随后是周向（即体积）生长。
