Abstract: OBJECTIVE: To establish post-implantation rabbit whole embryo culture for studying teratogenic agents. METHODS：Gestation day 9(GD9) rabbit embryos were cultured mainly according to the method of Carney and Naya，embryos dissected，and cultured one per bottle，and morphology was compared with results in the literature after culturing 48 h in vitro. 5 mmol/L methoxyacetic acid was used as positive control. The scoring system was a new refined morphological scoring system by Carney. RESULTS：23 GD9 embryos cultured in vitro all survived，the average growth of head length was 2.15 times，the visceral yolk sac closure，flexion，somites， spontaneous malformation，average of morphology scores etc were close to the literature. The positive control of 5 mmol /L MAA induced developmental toxicity consisted of reducing closure rate of yolk sac，swollen head regions，lack of facial development，disordered somites，delayed closure of caudual neural tube etc，the scoring was lower than the solvent control (P<0.05). CONCLUSION：The post-implantation rabbit whole embryo culture method and conditions established in our laboratory was reliable，which could be an efficient tool to study teratogenic agents.

Key words: in vitro, whole embryo culture, teratogenic agents