Volume 9 Issue 3, September 1999: 201-208
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
The developmental fate of green fluorescent mouse embryonic germ cells in chimeric embryos
XU Xin1,*, Yong Shen YU1,*, Hsiao Chien TSUNG1, Sumio SUGANO2, Yuan Chang YAN1,**
1. Shanghai Institute of Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai 200031, China
2. Department of Virology, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Correspondence:
Primordial germ cells (PGCs), as precursors of mammalian germ lineage, have been gaining more attention as a new resource of pluripotent stem cells, which bring a great possibility to study developmental events of germ cell in vitro and at animal level. EG4 cells derived from 10.5 days post coitum (dpc) PGCs of 129/svJ strain mouse were established and maintained in an undifferentiated state. With an attempt to study the differentiation capability of EG4 cells with a reporter protein: green fluorescence protein, and the possible application of EG4 cells in the research of germ cell development, we have generated several EG4-GFP cell lines expressing enhanced green fluorescence protein (EGFP) and still maintaining typical characteristics of pluripotent stem cells. Then, the differentiation of EG4-GFP cells in vitro as well as their developmental fate in chimeric embryos which were produced by aggregating EG4-GFP cells to 8-cell stage embryos were studied. The results showed that EG4 cells carrying green fluorescence have a potential use in the research of germ cell development and other related studies.
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