Development of single blastomeres from four‐ and eight‐cell mouse embryos fused into the enucleated half of a two‐cell embryo

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Abstract
Single blastomeres from four‐ and eight‐cell mouse embryos were fused into the enucleated halves of two‐cell embryos, and the ability of these reconstituted embryos to develop in vitro and in vivo was examined. The proportion of these reconstituted embryos developing to blastocysts was 74% (60/81) when four‐cell embryo blastomeres were used as nuclei donors and 31% (57/182) when eight‐cell embryo blastomeres were used. Eight complete sets of the quadruplet‐reconstituted embryos developed to blastocysts, and five live young (9%, 5/57) were obtained after transfer; however, none of the live young were clones. Although when using blastomeres from eight‐cell embryos no complete set of eight developed to blastocysts, sextuplets were obtained. The blastocysts, however, failed to produce live young after transfer. In assessing the outgrowths, it was found that 43% of those derived from reconstituted embryos using blastomeres from four‐cell embryos had an inner cell mass (ICM); however, outgrowths derived from reconstituted embryos using blastomeres from eight‐cell embryos lacked an ICM. These results suggest that the genomes of four‐ and eight‐cell nuclei introduced into the enucleated halves of two‐cell embryos are reversed to support the development of the reconstituted embryo.