Le Douarin N M
Institut d'Embryologie Cellulaire et Moléculaire du CNRS et du Collège de France, Nogent-sur-Marne.
Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1988 Oct 22;235(1278):1-17. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1988.0060.
Chimeras have been constructed in the avian embryo following the observation of the particular structure of the interphase nucleus in the Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica). In all embryonic and adult cell types of this species a large amount of heterochromatin is associated with the nucleolus, making quail cells readily distinguishable from those of the chick where the constitutive heterochromatin is evenly dispersed in the nucleus. These structural differences have been used to devise a cell-marking technique through which cell migrations and cell interactions during embryogenesis can be followed in the embryo in ovo by grafting quail cells into chick embryos or vice versa. This method was applied to the ontogeny of the neural crest and of the immune system. Recently quail-chick chimeras have been allowed to hatch and the immunological status of the embryonic grafts after birth scrutinized. Xenogeneic tissue grafts made in the embryo are rejected after birth with a more or less prolonged delay according to the nature of the graft. However, rejection can be prevented and a permanent state of tolerance induced for the embryonic tissue grafts by isotopically implanting the thymic epithelium from the same quail donor.
在观察到日本鹌鹑（Coturnix coturnix japonica）间期核的特殊结构后，人们在禽类胚胎中构建了嵌合体。在该物种的所有胚胎和成年细胞类型中，大量异染色质与核仁相关联，这使得鹌鹑细胞很容易与鸡的细胞区分开来，鸡的组成型异染色质均匀地分散在细胞核中。这些结构差异已被用于设计一种细胞标记技术，通过将鹌鹑细胞移植到鸡胚中或反之亦然，可以在胚胎发育过程中追踪胚胎中的细胞迁移和细胞相互作用。该方法被应用于神经嵴和免疫系统的个体发育研究。最近，鹌鹑 - 鸡嵌合体已被允许孵化，并对出生后胚胎移植的免疫状态进行了仔细检查。根据移植组织的性质，胚胎期进行的异种组织移植在出生后会有或多或少的延迟被排斥。然而，通过同位素植入来自同一鹌鹑供体的胸腺上皮，可以防止排斥反应，并诱导对胚胎组织移植的永久耐受状态。
