TY - JOUR TI - Impaired meiotic competence in putative primordial germ cells produced from mouse embryonic stem cells AU - Tedesco, Marianna AU - Farini, Donatella AU - De Felici, Massimo T2 - The International Journal of Developmental Biology AB - There are still several unanswered questions and problems about the recently claimed possibility of producing functional germ cells in vitro from pluripotent embryonic stem cells (ESCs). In the present paper, we compared by single-cell analysis the capability of putative primordial germ cells (PGCs), produced in vitro from ESCs, and that of endogenous PGCs isolated from embryos, to enter and progress through meiotic prophase I. Using a protocol previously reported to be suitable to produce female germ cells from mouse ESC monolayers, we first identified putative PGCs by analysing the expression pattern of several markers such as SSEA1, APase, OCT4, NANOG, MVH and SCP3 of pre-and post migratory PGCs. Next, after isolation of such cells from culture, we tested their meiotic capability. The evaluation at 2-5 days of culture of the number of cells showing meiotic nuclear SCP3 staining in cytospreads showed that it remained nearly constant in the putative PGCs, whereas it increased markedly in endogenous PGCs. Moreover, we observed that in putative PGCs, the nuclear distribution or expression of SCP3 and other meiotic markers such as DMC1, gH2AX and SCP1 were always highly abnormal in comparison to that observed in endogenous cultured PGCs. We conclude that although the formation of cells showing characteristics of PGCs can occur efficiently from ESCs in vitro, these cells possess impaired capability to enter and progress through meiotic prophase I. PY - 2011 DO - 10.1387/ijdb.103108mt VL - 55 IS - 2 SP - 215 EP - 222 J2 - Int. J. Dev. Biol. LA - en SN - 0214-6282 SN - 1696-3547 UR - https://ijdb.ehu.eus/article/103108mt Y2 - 2024/12/22/15:47:56 ER -