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Functional test of tight junctions in the mouse blastocyst

THE mouse blastocyst contains a fluid-filled cavity, the blastocoele, which in normal Q-strain embryos first appears at about 83 h post coitum, when cleavage has produced a ball of about 30 cells 1 . Two factors could be involved in the formation of the blastocoele: the secretion of fluid, which see...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1977-05, Vol.267 (5609), p.351-353
Main Authors: MCLAREN, ANNE, SMITH, ROSITA
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:THE mouse blastocyst contains a fluid-filled cavity, the blastocoele, which in normal Q-strain embryos first appears at about 83 h post coitum, when cleavage has produced a ball of about 30 cells 1 . Two factors could be involved in the formation of the blastocoele: the secretion of fluid, which seems to be brought about by the coalescence and subsequent release of fluid-filled cytoplasmic vacuoles 2 , and the development of tight intercellular junctions. Such junctions are first observed at the eight-cell stage, around the periphery of the embryo 3 ; in the blastocyst they have increased in number and complexity to form the so-called ‘zonula occludens’, a permeability seal that can exclude lanthanum tracer from the blastocoele and thus presumably plays a role in maintaining the fluid turgor of the blastocyst 4 . By ‘immunosurgical’ dissection 5 of Q embryos, we have investigated the stage of normal development at which the permeability seal becomes functional. We report here that impermeability to antiserum was not achieved until the mid-blastocyst stage (45–50 cells), and was not hastened or delayed by experimentally increasing or decreasing total cell number.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/267351a0