Production of identical twins by bisection of blastocysts in the cow

J. P. Ozil

doi:10.1530/jrf.0.0690463

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Production of identical twins by bisection of blastocysts in the cow

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J. P. Ozil

J. P. Ozil
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DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1530/jrf.0.0690463

Volume/Issue:: Volume 69: Issue 2

Page Range:: 463–468

Article Type:: Research Article

Online Publication Date:: Nov 1983

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Summary. Day-8 embryos were recovered by a non-surgical method from superovulated crossbred heifers. Normal expanded blastocysts with a distinct inner cell mass and a trophoblast were released from the zona pellucida and bisected along a sagittal plane into two 'half' blastocysts. Each 'half' blastocyst was replaced in an empty zona pellucida and cultured for 2 h in B2 medium. After culture the 'half' blastocysts were directly transferred to recipient heifers via the cervix. From 11 blastocysts, 11 monozygotic 'half' blastocyst pairs were transferred to 11 recipients: 8 recipients became pregnant, 4 carried twins and one delivered a normal calf and an acardiacus amorphus monster consisting of disorganized embryonic tissues. A further 11 'half' blastocysts were transferred as singletons to 11 recipients. Five recipients were apparently pregnant at Day 42. One returned to oestrus at Day 45, 3 were carrying normal fetuses and 1 a pair of normal twin fetuses when slaughtered at Day 128.

It is concluded that even after the first irreversible cellular differentiation which occurs at the blastocyst stage it is still possible to produce identical cattle twins by bisection of the Day-8 blastocyst.

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