From blastomeres to somatic cells: reflections on cell developmental potential in light of chimaera studies - a review

Mammalian development is a process, whereby cells from a totipotent zygote gradually lose their potency, i.e. their ability to differentiate, in the environment of the developing embryo. An ideal model for testing the real potential of cells is the experimental production of chimaeras. The first experimentally produced mammalian (murine) chimaeras were created by Tarkowski [ 1961] and since then many new methods of chimaera production have been developed, including injecting cells into the blastocyst's cavity or into cleaving embryos. This review describes how different cell types, depending on the developmental stage or culture conditions, manifest their potential to contribute to chimaeras. Cell developmental potential has been analysed in pluripotent blastomeres, which can contribute to all embryonic and extra-embryonic lineages, albeit differently depending on their developmental stage. This is the case in blastocyst lineages, with various developmental potentials depending on the surrounding cells, and in more differentiated cells from different stages of pregnancy, which in some cases may colonise chimaeric animal tissue. Cell potential has also been analysed in embryonic stem and embryonal carcinoma cells, which are pluripotent and efficiently contribute to chimaeras; in multipotent fetal and adult stem cells, which can also participate in chimaera formation; and in somatic mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs), which can also be reprogrammed in the environment of the cleaving embryo. Interspecies chimaera studies have also demonstrated the pluripotency of foreign cells. Experiments with chimaeras have shown that not only pluripotent embryonic cells are capable of contributing to chimaeras, so are adult cells, which plasticity is now well-documented. Key words: adult stem cells / cell plasticity / chimaera / developmental