title: Embryonic stem cells from single blastomeres.
abstract: The fact that deriving embryonic stem (ES) cells from a blastocyst prevents its further development as an embryo is a major issue in human ES cell research. Using eight-cell mouse embryos, we have developed a method of deriving ES cells from a single blastomere, allowing the other seven to continue normal embryonic development. We remove one blastomere and coculture it with green fluorescent protein-labeled ES cells so that it is possible later to separate the clump of blastomere-derived ES cells to a feeder layer for further culturing. The removal of one blastomere is already performed on some human embryos during in vitro fertilization as part of prenatal genetic diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Cell Technology, Biotech Five, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Sandy
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.forename: Young
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chung
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001757:Blastomeres / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D002455:Cell Division; D002460:Cell Line; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000379:methods; D017931:DNA Primers; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers