MOUSE BLASTOCYST IMMUNOSURGERY WITH COMMERCIAL ANTISERUM TO MOUSE ERYTHROCYTES

Immunosurgery is a useful technique for the isolation of inner cell ma sses from murine blastocysts. Conventionally, rabbit antisera made ad hoc against murine splenic or fetal cells or fibroblasts have been use d as antibody sources. We investigated the feasibility of using commer cially available rabbit antiserum to murine erythrocytes (anti-RBC) an d compared it with rabbit antiserum generated ad hoc to murine L-cells (anti-L-cell). Our results indicate that anti-RBC is at least as effe ctive as anti-L-cell serum for the immunosurgical isolation of inner c ell masses, which became either mini-blastocysts (later forming outgro wths) or embryoid bodies (undergoing ectoderm-endodermlike differentia tion within 48 h). Because anti-RBC is commercially available, the tec hnical modification described herein increases the accessibility of th e immunosurgical protocol for the isolation of murine inner cell masse s.