Abstract
Studying various animal models is important for comparative biology and to better understand evolutionary development. Furthermore, when aiming to translate findings to human development, it is crucial to select an appropriate animal model that closely resembles the specific aspect of development under study. The guinea pig is highlighted as a useful platform for reproductive studies due to similarities in in utero development and general physiology with the human. This chapter outlines the methods required for guinea pig mating and collection of embryos for in vitro culture and molecular characterization. Specifically, this chapter provides detailed guidance on monitoring the estrus cycle to determine the mating time, performing a vaginal flush and smear to confirm successful mating, performing euthanasia of the guinea pig, and flushing in vivo embryos. Once collected, the embryos can be utilized for numerous downstream applications. Here we will cover embryo culturing and processing embryos for immunofluorescence.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (PJT-178082) and NSERC PGS D scholarship to KV. SP holds the Canada Research Chair in Functional Genomics of Reproduction and Development (950-233204). We thank the CRCHUM imaging facility for allowing us to use the confocal microscope.
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Canizo, J., Biondic, S., Lenghan, K.V., Petropoulos, S. (2023). Guinea Pig Preimplantation Embryos: Generation, Collection, and Immunofluorescence. In: Zernicka-Goetz, M., Turksen, K. (eds) Embryo Models In Vitro. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2767. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/7651_2023_488
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/7651_2023_488
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