Growth kinetics of mammalian embryos during the stage of differentiation

Summary

In order to get insight into the synthesis rates occuring in mammalian embryos during the phase of differentiation, wet and dry weight as well as DNA-, RNA-, and nitrogen content of the whole implantation site (day 7 to 10 of gestation) and of the embryos (day 11 to 14) have been determined.

Growth of the whole implantation site (day 7 to 10) proceeds almost linearly: Within a 24-h period the weight increases about 2-fold. The growth of the embryos, however, is found to be different in each 24-h period between day 8 and 14. All synthesis processes proceed at an extremely rapid rate between day 9 and 12 of gestation. The weight of embryos shows a 6-fold rise between day 11 and 12, the increase being even more pronounced on the preceding days. Growth and increase in cell mass are essentially due to cell division, since DNA content and weight change in a parallel way. Data on the nitrogen content per embryo show that the protein synthesis keeps pace with the rapid cell division.

Using pure nuclear fractions isolated from 11- to 14-day-old embryos the average distribution of RNA within the cells can be estimated.

The increase in the number of cells within a 24-h period is calculated from the average DNA content per embryo and the average DNA content per nucleus measured in isolated nuclei. The DNA content per nucleus of 12- to 14-day-old rat embryos is found to be almost twice (12±0.5 pg) that of diploid nuclei (6.7–7.2 pg). This inducates that a high percentage of the cells are in the late S-phase or in the G₂-phase. The growth rate of the embryos between day 8 and 14 of gestation is calculated from the 24-h rate of increase in cell number which is obtained either biochemically or in the earlier stage of embryonic development with morphological studies. Some peculiarities of the duration of the cell cycle of the rapidly growing tissue are discussed.