Murine fertilized ovum, blastomere and morula cells lacking SP phenotype

In the field of stem cell research, SP (side population) phenotype is used to define the property that cells maintain a high efflux capability for some fluorescent dye, such as Hoechst 33342. Recently, many researches proposed that SP phenotype is a phenotype shared by some stem cells and some progenitor cells, and that SP phenotype is regarded as a candidate purification marker for stem cells. In this research, murine fertilized ova (including conjugate and single nucleus fertilized ova), 2-cell stage and 8-cell stage blastomeres, morulas and blastocysts were isolated and directly stained by Hoechst 33342 dye. The results show that fertilized ovum, blastomere and morula cells do not demonstrate any ability to efflux the dye. However, the inner cell mass (ICM) cells of blastocyst exhibit SP phenotype, which is consistent with the result of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in vitro. These results indicate that the SP phenotype of ICM-derived ESCs is an intrinsic property and independent of the culture condition in vitro, and that SP phenotype is one of the characteristics of at least some pluripotent stem cells, but is not shared by totipotent stem cells. In addition, the result that the SP phenotype of ICM cells disappeared when the inhibitor verapamil was added into medium implies that the SP phenotype is directly associated with ABCG2. These results suggest that not all the stem cells demonstrate SP phenotype, and that SP phenotype might act as a purification marker for partial stem cells such as some pluripotent embryonic stem cells and multipotent adult stem cells, but not for all stem cells exampled by the totipotent stem cells in the very early stage of mouse embryos.