Long-term organ culture of mouse fetal genital ridges

抄録

We investigated the oocyte development in vitro from the genital ridges of 12.5 days post coitum (dpc) including premeiotic germ cells. The cultured tissues survived and the oocytes entered into growth phase. Mesonephric region with the genital ridge was vacuolated during culture in vitro. On day 18 of culture, follicle-like suructures had appeared in the cultured tissues. Morphology of oocytes isolated from the cultures was generally nomal, included the presence of a zona pellucida and had a nucleus of germinal vesicle (GV) stage. The oocyte diameter reached to 51.5±0.5 μm. Stem cell factor (SCF) did not promote the oocyte growth in this culture system. The present work showed that the oocytes developed in vitro from the 12.5 dpc genital ridges reached to the midsize whether or not SCF is added to culture.