Cell division and death in the mouse blastocyst before implantation - PubMed (original) (raw)

. 1986 Oct;195(8):519-526.

doi: 10.1007/BF00375893.

Affiliations

Cell division and death in the mouse blastocyst before implantation

Alan H Handyside et al. Rouxs Arch Dev Biol. 1986 Oct.

Abstract

The numbers of cells in the trophectoderm (TE) and inner cell mass (ICM) of mouse blastocysts were counted by differentially labelling their nuclei with two polynucleotide-specific fluorochromes. Blastocysts recovered from the uterus at intervals between their formation early on Day 4 to the initial stages of implantation on day 5 were analysed. TE cell number increase was initially rapid, indicating some synchronisation of the sixth division, but slowed down progressively and plateaued on Day 5, possibly due to the onset of primary giant cell formation. ICM cell number increase was slower than the corresponding TE cells. As a result, TE cell number more than quadrupled, whereas ICM cell number only doubled over this period. Although the mitotic index of both populations of cells fell steadily, there was no significant difference between them. The decline in the proportion of ICM cells, therefore, is likely to be due to cell death, first detected in early blastocysts and predominantly located in the ICM. In addition, however, a contribution of ICM cells to the overlying polar TE cannot be excluded.

Keywords: Cell death; Cleavage; Inner cell mass; Mouse blastocyst; Trophectoderm.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Int Rev Cytol. 1980;68:251-306 - PubMed
    1. J Embryol Exp Morphol. 1978 Dec;48:109-25 - PubMed
    1. J Embryol Exp Morphol. 1980 Aug;58:231-49 - PubMed
    1. J Embryol Exp Morphol. 1970 Jun;23(3):693-704 - PubMed
    1. Nature. 1980 Apr 10;284(5756):555-6 - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources