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Updated: Jun 11, 2025
A Submerged Filter Paper Sandwich for Long-term Ex Ovo Time-lapse Imaging of Early Chick Embryos
Published on: December 28, 2016
Real-time visualisation of developing chick embryos cultured in transparent plastic films from the blastoderm stage
Katsuya Obara1,2, Chizuka Obara3,4, Mitsuru Naito5
1Takanedai Animal Clinic, 2-16-3 Narashinodai, Funabashi, Chiba, 274-0063, Japan. ka.obara@takanedai-ah.com.
Insights
Researchers developed a novel shell-less culture system for chick embryo development, enabling real-time, omnidirectional visualization from the blastoderm stage to hatching. This breakthrough overcomes limitations of previous methods, offering unprecedented insights into early embryogenesis.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Biology
- Embryology
- In Vitro Fertilization
Background:
- Real-time visualization of chick embryo development within the eggshell is a significant challenge in developmental biology.
- Existing shell-less culture methods allow hatching but do not permit visualization of early organogenesis due to opaque membranes covering the blastoderm.
- Previous shell-less systems were limited to visualizing development after the first 3 days.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop an improved shell-less culture system for chick embryos.
- To enable omnidirectional, real-time visualization of chick embryo development from the earliest stages (blastoderm) through to hatching.
- To overcome the limitations of existing methods that obscure early developmental events.
Main Methods:
- Development of a novel transparent shell-less embryo culture system.
- Utilizing a transparent plastic film and cup construction for embryo support.
- Culturing fertilized chick embryos from the newly laid blastoderm stage.
Main Results:
- The new system allows for continuous, omnidirectional real-time visualization of chick embryo development.
- Dynamic morphological changes during the emergence of major organ systems are now observable from the blastoderm stage.
- The system supports embryo development from the blastoderm stage through to hatching.
Conclusions:
- The developed shell-less culture system provides a powerful tool for studying early chick embryogenesis in real-time.
- This method overcomes previous visualization barriers, offering new possibilities for developmental biology research.
- Omnidirectional visualization from the blastoderm stage to hatching is now achievable, advancing the study of embryonic development.
Abstract:
Real-time visualisation of chick embryo development occurring inside an opaque eggshell is a major goal of developmental biology. This goal was partially achieved when 3-day-old embryos recovered from fertilised shelled eggs, preincubated in a conventional incubator, hatched after the egg contents had been transferred into shell-less embryo culture systems constructed of transparent plastic film placed in a plastic cup. However, the hatchable shell-less embryo culture systems described thus far cannot be used to visualise the dynamic morphological changes associated with the emergence of major organ systems during the first 3 days of embryo development, as the blastoderm area needs to be covered with an opaque membrane. Here, we present the development of a chick embryo culture system that enables omnidirectional real-time visualisation of the developing embryo, beginning from the newly laid blastoderm stage embryo until hatching.
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