Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is a major cause of refractory respiratory failure in the newborn. Besides pulmonary hypoplasia, the pathophysiology of CDH also includes surfactant deficiency. Vitamin A (vit A) is important for various aspects of lung development. We hypothesized that antenatal treatment with vit A would stimulate lung surfactant synthesis in experimental CDH induced in rats by maternal ingestion of the herbicide nitrofen (2,4-dichloro-phenyl-p-nitrophenyl-ether) on Day 12. Fetuses were assigned to six experimental groups: (1) controls from rats that received olive oil, the vehicle; (2) fetuses from rats that received olive oil on Day 12 and vit A orally (15,000 IU) on Day 14; (3) nitrofen (N)-exposed fetuses without diaphragmatic hernia (N/no DH); (4) N/no DH from rats given vit A on Day 14; (5 ) nitrofen-exposed fetuses with DH (N/+DH); (6) N/+DH from rats given vit A on Day 14. Fetuses were delivered by C-section at Day 21. Lung DNA content was lowered in the nitrofen group as compared with the controls group, but increased by subsequent vit A treatment. Lung surfactant disaturated phosphatidylcholine was reduced in the N/+DH group and restored to control level by vit A. The expression level of surfactant proteins (SP) -A and -C was decreased in vit A-treated control rats and in nitrofen-exposed fetuses with or without DH. Vit A restored SP-A and -C mRNA expression to control levels in N/+DH. SP-B expression was lowered in N/no DH and increased by vit A in this group. The proportion of type II cells assessed by SP-B immunolabeling was lowered in N/+DH and restored by vit A treatment. We conclude that antenatal treatment with vit A restores lung maturation in nitrofen-induced hypoplastic lungs with CDH. These findings point out vit A as a potential therapeutical agent for correcting surfactant deficiency in CDH.