AN ARNOLD-CHIARI-LIKE MALFORMATION ASSOCIATED WITH THE CURLY TAIL (CTCT) MOUSE/

Curly tail (ct/ct) mice have neural tube defects (NTDs) that resemble human spina bifida (SB) in their anatomical and biochemical characteri stics. Because humans with SB also manifest the Arnold-Chaiari malform ation (ACM) of the brain, we examined the brains of ct/ct mice to dete rmine whether they have this abnormality. The angular morphology of ct /ct brains revealed that the caudal structures of ct/ct brains were lo cated more posteriorly than their normal CBA counterparts, pointing to the presence of ACM. Curly tail mice did not show microencephaly.