Investigation of the fate of 4-5 day post-coitum mouse inner cell mass cells by blastocyst injection.

Two distinct patterns of chimaerism were found in conceptuses produced by injecting dissociated 4.5-day inner cell mass cells into genetically dissimilar blastocysts. Pattern 1: donor cells were found in the endoderm layer of the visceral yolk sac, but not in the adjacent mesoderm layer of this organ or in the foetus itself. Pattern 2: donor cells were found in the mesoderm layer of the visceral yolk sac and/or foetus, but never in the yolk-sac endoderm as well. Primitive endoderm cells of donor inner cell masses are responsible for the first pattern and primitive ectoderm cells for the second. These results, together with those of previous studies, suggest that the entire foetus, including its endodermal components, is formed from the primitive ectoderm, and that primitive endoderm forms only extra-embryonic endoderm of the conceptus.