Eighty-nine Swiss Webster mice were randomly divided into four groups: a control group, a pulsed magnetic field (PMF) group, a cytosine arabinoside (ara-C, a teratogen) group, and a combined PMF + ara-C group. Mice in the PMF and PMF + ara-C groups were irradiated with a PMF (a sawtooth waveform with 52 microseconds rise time, 12 microseconds decay time, and 15.6 kHz frequency) at a peak magnetic flux density of 40 microT for 4 hours daily on days 6-17 of gestation. The mice in the ara-C and the PMF + ara-C groups were injected intraperitoneally on day 9 of gestation with 10 mg/kg of ara-C. The incidence of resorption and dead fetuses was not affected by PMF but was increased by ara-C injection. The malformation incidence of cleft palate (CP) and/or cleft lip (CL) was significantly higher in all three of the treated groups than in the control group (P < 0.05). If, however, statistical analyses had been done on litters rather than on individual fetuses, they would show that the incidence of CP and/or CL in the PMF group is not significantly greater than that in the control group. A significantly higher incidence of CP and/or CL was found in the PMF + ara-C group (49%) than the ara-C alone group (26.1%). These data suggest that PMF might enhance the development of ara-C-induced CP and/or CL. The incidence of minor variations in skeletal development, including reduction of skeletal calcification and loss of skeleton, was not statistically significant in the PMF group.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)