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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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Published in: | Nature (London) 1977-05, Vol.267 (5609), p.351-353 |
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Main Authors: | , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Citations: | Items that this one cites Items that cite this one |
Online Access: | Get full text |
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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
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. 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
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, and the development of tight intercellular junctions. Such junctions are first observed at the eight-cell stage, around the periphery of the embryo
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; 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
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. By ‘immunosurgical’ dissection
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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. |
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ISSN: | 0028-0836 1476-4687 |
DOI: | 10.1038/267351a0 |