| First Author | Sekirina GG | Year | 1995 |
| Journal | Zygote | Volume | 3 |
| Issue | 4 | Pages | 313-24 |
| PubMed ID | 8730896 | Mgi Jnum | J:281053 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6376898 | Doi | 10.1017/S0967199400002744 |
| Citation | Sekirina GG, et al. (1995) The microenvironment created by non-blocking embryos in aggregates may rescue blocking embryos via cell-embryo adherent contacts. Zygote 3(4):313-24 |
| abstractText | Under our culture conditions, mouse embryos from the BALB/c inbred mouse strain develop successfully in culture only from the late 2-cell stage onwards (so-called 2-cell block), whether or not EDTA is added to the culture medium. (CBA x C57BL) F2 embryos do not exhibit a 2-cell block. Medium conditioned by culture of non-blocking embryos from the 2-cell to the 8-cell stage did not improve the development of blocking embryos, nor did co-culture of blocking and non-blocking embryos, with or without conditioned medium. On the other hand phytohaemagglutinin (PHA)-assisted aggregation of an early 2-cell BALB/c embryo with five surrounding non-blocking F2 embryos (2-cell or 8-cell) or five BALB/c 8-cell embryos allowed the early 2-cell BALB/c embryos to develop into blastocysts within 72 h. Aggregation of blocking BALB/c 2-cell embryos with each other had no 'rescue' effect. When blocking and non-blocking 2-cell embryos were aggregated together, an integrated blastocyst was formed; but when the early 2-cell BALB/c embryos were aggregated with non-blocking 8-cell embryos, the blocking embryos formed a separate small blastocyst, which nonetheless retained adherent contact with the non-blocking embryos throughout the culture period. Ultrastructural analysis showed that 2-cell embryos aggregated with the aid of PHA form close adherent cell contacts up to several micrometres in length. |
