LacZ transgene expression as a cell marker to analyse rescue from the 2-cell block in mouse aggregation chimeras

Embryos from certain mouse strains are arrested at the 2-cell stage in cell culture ('2-cell block'), whereas those from other strains develop to the blastocyst stage under the same conditions. It was previously shown that blocking embryos can be rescued in culture by aggregation with an excess of 2-cell stages of a non-blocking strain such as CBA x C57BL/6 F2. Here we have employed a LacZ transgene in a blocking strain (NMRI) to follow the fate of rescued blastomeres up to the blastocyst stage. We found that rescued blastomeres can participate in both inner cell mass and trophoblast formation, thus completely overcoming the 2-cell block.