Prolonged survival of implanting rat blastocysts in the uterus of congenitally athymic mice.
Rat blastocysts were transferred to the uteri of either immunodeficient, congenitally athymic (nu/nu) 'nude' mice or immunocompetent, heterozygous (nu/+) mice. Histological analysis showed that there was a similar frequency of implanted blastocysts in the two types of mice, that blastocysts transferred to nude athymic mice outlived those in heterozygous controls by at least 3 days, and that blastocysts in nude mice showed delayed and abnormal development and were eventually rejected. These findings suggest that the T-cell deficiency in nude mice may prolong the survival of implanting blastocyst but that other immune or non-immune factors still limit their development.
D000818:Animals; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000276:immunology; D004624:Embryo Transfer; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude / Q000276:immunology*; D011555:Pseudopregnancy; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous; D014599:Uterus / Q000276:immunology