Abstract
Four ES-like cell lines (M4, R1, DMR2 and DMR3) were established from the inner cell masses of Japanese White (M4, R1) and Dutch (DMR2, DMR3) rabbit blastocysts. Three and one cell lines of them can be maintained on primary mouse and rabbit fetal fibroblast feeder layers, respectively. All 4 lines (1 female and 3 male) were karyotypically normal with 44 chromosomes. They spontaneously differentiated into embryoid bodies on suspension culture, and endoderm-like, muscular-like, neuron-like cells, lipid vesicles and tubular structures on monolayer culture. An alkaline phosphatase (AP) activity of them decreased with passage times, indicating progressive differentiation status.
