A Mouse and Embryonic Stem Cell Derived from a Single Embryo

Abstract

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are a good material for the study of mammalian development, production of genetically modified animals, and drug discovery because they proliferate infinitely while maintaining a multilineage differentiation potency and a normal karyotype. However, ethical considerations limit the use of human embryos for the establishment of ESCs. Recently, ESCs have been produced from blastomeres divided by biopsy in mice and humans. The method is expected to be less controversial because it does not destroy the embryo. However, no one has yet produced both a pup and an ESC from a single embryo. Here, we describe the production of individual/ESC pairs from each of three embryos out of 20 attempts, and is thus considered efficient. Blastomere-derived ESC could differentiate some types of tissues and contribute to chimera mouse. These results show that each blastomere at two-cell stage possesses pluripotency and separated blastomeres maintain viability to develop to a pup or pluripotent ESC.

Embryonic Stem Cells from Blastomeres Maintaining Embryo Viability

“…This work was later repeated [94][95][96][97][98] by other groups, generating ESC lines from mouse single blastomeres and even polar bodies using different stage embryos with various efficiencies for different stages blastomeres, ranging from 5% to almost 79%.…”

Human ES Cells and a Blastocyst from One Embryo: Exciting Science but Conflicting Ethics?

“…Previous experiments on mouse embryos showed that embryonic stem (ES) cell lines can be obtained from biopsied individual blastomeres and that the remaining embryo can produce a live offspring (Chung et al, 2006;Teramura et al, 2007). Applying a similar approach to human embryos, Klimanskaya et al (2006) showed that isolated human blastomeres could indeed form hESCs at low frequency.…”