Study on the concentration of circulating primordial germ cells (cPGCs) in early chick embryos

Experiments were conducted to elucidate the factor that influences the concentration of circulating primordial germ cells (cPGCs) in two-day old chick embryos. The concentration of cPGCs was observed to be highest at stage 14 (66.9 +/- 23.2 microliters) and decreased thereafter. However, considerable egg to egg variations in cPGC concentration, especially at stages 13, 14, 15, and 16 were observed. After conducting experiments to elucidate the source of egg to egg variation in cPGC concentration among embryos, it was revealed that there are hens that lay eggs which contain either constantly high (more than 80 PGCs/microliter) or constantly low (less than 30 PGCs/microliter) concentration of cPGCs. The results obtained from the present experiments showed that one of the major source of egg to egg variation in the concentration of cPGCs was due to the individual differences among females that produced the eggs.