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Developmental pattern of hexaploid mouse embryos produced by blastomere fusion of diploid and tetraploid embryos at the 2-cell stage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Lei Lei*
Affiliation:
Department of Histology and Embryology, Harbin Medical University, 194 Xuefu Road, Nangang District, Harbin, 150081 China.
Na Guan
Affiliation:
Department of Histology and Embryology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
Yan-Ning Xu
Affiliation:
Department of Histology and Embryology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
Qing-Hua Zhang
Affiliation:
Department of Histology and Embryology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
Jing-Ling Shen
Affiliation:
Department of Histology and Embryology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
Lian-Hong Jin
Affiliation:
Department of Histology and Embryology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
*
All correspondence to Lei Lei. Department of Histology and Embryology, Harbin Medical University, 194 Xuefu Road, Nangang District, Harbin, 150081 China. Tel: +86 451 86674518. Fax: +86 451 87503325. e-mail: leiys2002@yahoo.com

Summary

Polyploid mouse embryos are important models for understanding the mechanisms of cleavage and preimplantation development in mammals. In this study, hexaploid (6n) mouse embryos were produced by the electrofusion of blastomeres from diploid (2n) and tetraploid (4n) embryos at the 2-cell stage. Furthermore, the developmental pattern of hexaploid embryos was evaluated by blastocyst rate, cell number, karyotype analysis, cytoskeleton staining and Oct-4 immunofluorescence. The results showed that 72.7% of the hexaploid embryos were able to develop to the blastocyst stage, which is a lower number than that found with normal diploid embryos (98.0%, p < 0.05). The cell number in hexaploid blastocyst was 12.3 ± 2.0, which was less than that found in diploid or tetraploid blastocysts (41.2 ± 7.2; 18.4 ± 3.5). Karyotype analysis confirmed that the number of chromosomes in hexaploid embryos was 120. β-Tubulin and Oct-4 immunofluorescence indicated that the hexaploid blastocysts were nearly lacking inner cell mass (ICM), but some blastomeres did show Oct-4-positive expression.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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