Ultrastructure and morphometric analysis of preimplantation mouse embryos.

During cleavage, both qualitative and quantitative morphologic characters of mouse ova change. Up to the 8-cell stage, the volume density of mitochondria remains nearly the same although it increases during early and late blastocyst stages. While a rise of the volume fraction of granular endoplasmic reticulum is noticed during cleavage, the volume density of agranular endoplasmic reticulum diminishes gradually from the 1-cell stage onwards. An increase in the volume fraction of autophagic vacuoles is found, the maximum being reached in early blastocysts. The volume fraction of crystalloid inclusions slightly increases after the 4-cell stage, but this increase is statistically insignificant. The volume density of filamentous material (plaques) conspicuously decreases in all studied embryos from the beginning of cleavage. Starting with the 2-cell stage, the volume fraction of lipid droplets remains practically unchanged. No differences in volume densities of the Golgi apparatus, multivesicular and residual bodies, and large cytoplasmic vesicles with medium electron-dense content are found between the respective cleavage stages.