Selection against BALB/c strain cells in mouse chimaeras
Pin-Chi Tang,
Gillian E. MacKay,
Jean H. Flockhart,
Margaret A. Keighren,
Anna Kopakaki,
John D. West
Affiliations
Pin-Chi Tang
Genes and Development Group, Centre for Integrative Physiology, Clinical Sciences, University of Edinburgh Medical School, Hugh Robson Building, George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9XD, UK
Gillian E. MacKay
Genes and Development Group, Centre for Integrative Physiology, Clinical Sciences, University of Edinburgh Medical School, Hugh Robson Building, George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9XD, UK
Jean H. Flockhart
Genes and Development Group, Centre for Integrative Physiology, Clinical Sciences, University of Edinburgh Medical School, Hugh Robson Building, George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9XD, UK
Margaret A. Keighren
Genes and Development Group, Centre for Integrative Physiology, Clinical Sciences, University of Edinburgh Medical School, Hugh Robson Building, George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9XD, UK
Anna Kopakaki
Obstetrics and Gynaecology Section, Clinical Sciences, University of Edinburgh Medical School, The Queen's Medical Research Institute, 47 Little France Crescent, Edinburgh, EH16 4TJ, UK
John D. West
Genes and Development Group, Centre for Integrative Physiology, Clinical Sciences, University of Edinburgh Medical School, Hugh Robson Building, George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9XD, UK
It has been shown previously that BALB/c strain embryos tend to contribute poorly to mouse aggregation chimaeras. In the present study we showed that BALB/c cells were not preferentially allocated to any extraembryonic lineages of mouse aggregation chimaeras, but their contribution decreased during the early postimplantation period and they were significantly depleted by E8.5. The development of BALB/c strain preimplantation embryos lagged behind embryos from some other strains and the contribution that BALB/c and other embryos made to chimaeras correlated with their developmental stage at E2.5. This relationship suggests that the poor contribution of BALB/c embryos to aggregation chimaeras is at least partly a consequence of generalised selection related to slow or delayed preimplantation development. The suitability of BALB/c embryos for maximising the ES cell contribution to mouse ES cell chimaeras is also discussed.
