Correlative scanning electron, transmission electron, and light microscopic studies of the in vitro development of mouse embryos on a plastic substrate at the implantation stage.

Correlative scanning electron, transmission electron, and light microscopy were utilized to study the morphogenic events occurring during mouse blastocyst outgrowth and early-egg-cylinder development in vitro. After hatching and attachment of blastocysts on the plastic surface, the blastocoelic cavity collapses as the mural trophoblasts spread and migrate outward. The inner cell mass is covered with a differentiated endoderm on the blastocoelic cavity side and by the polar trophoblasts on the medium side at this stage. As the endoderm-covered inner cell mass proliferates, being physically restricted from further downward expansion by the plastic coverslip and by lack of space in the collapsed blastocoelic cavity, it migrates upward and protrudes into the culture medium in a break between the polar and mural trophoblast cells. Polar trophoblast cells apposed to the base of the egg cylinder continue to proliferate forming the ectoplacental cone. Thus, the early egg cylinder lacking a trophoblast barrier begins inverting its growth pattern from towards the culture dish surface to a more upright position. Egg-cylinder development in vitro from the inner cell mass and polar trophoblast cells closely paralleled in vivo. The functional nature of various embryonic cell types observed in these embryos was revealed by scanning electron microscopy. These studies as well as those of Wiley and Pedersen (1977) suggest that blastocysts can serve as a source of in vitro developing early mouse egg cylinders that appear to resemble their in vivo counterparts and can be used in experimental studies of mouse embryogenesis.