Page 13 - BUAP - Facultad de Medicina - Embriología - Libro de prácticas de laboratorio

have their origin and explanation in these first stages and they are im-
portant to be known with the purpose of achieving a better quality of
life in the individual.

It is necessary to complement the study of normal development of
the body systems with the description and study of congenital mal-
formations that might be faced by M.D.´s daily practice.

The anatomy of development is the field of embryology that in-
volves the morphological changes that occur in the cells, tissues and
organs in the body as a whole from the germ cells of each progenitor
until it reaches adulthood.

The physiology of development explains the functioning of an or-
ganism in the above mentioned stages. However, human develop-
ment is a continual process that begins with the fertilization and ends
with death. Even though the majority of these processes take place in
the prenatal stages, others extend beyond birth, and this has taken
embryology to broaden its horizons and to be known as biology of
development.

Biology of development is based on embryology but includes mo-
lecular biology and genetic engineering techniques to study the fac-
tors that induce and regulate structural, physiological and behavioral
changes that occur in the life of an individual.

Teratology is the science that studies the abnormal development
(congenital defects). This embryology branch relates to diversal genet-
ic and/or environmental factors that alter the normal development
and produce congenital defects.

The Editors.

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