Involvement of glycoproteins in the development of early mouse embryos: effect of tunicamycin and alpha, alpha' dipyridyl in vitro.

Early mouse embryos grown in tissue culture were treated with tunicamycin, an inhibitor of protein glycosylation or with alpha, alpha' dipyridyl, an inhibitor of collagen secretion. Neither treatment blocked development of cleavage stage embryos nor did either interfere with blastocyst formation, hatching, or adhesion to the substratum at low concentrations. However, both treatments caused marked and specific changes in the morphology of the blastocyst outgrowth. Treatment of embryos with tunicamycin caused severe deterioration of the trophoblast layer and subsequent disintegration of the inner cell mass. Tunicamycin completely inhibited the incorporation of mannose into proteins. Treatment with alpha, alpha' dipyridyl caused dose dependent retardation of the inner cell mass while the trophoblast cells were virtually unaffected. These alterations in morphogenesis occurred only in embryos treated at the blastocyst stage or later in development. Changes caused by alpha, alpha' dipyridyl could be partially reversed by addition of collagen to the culture. These findings might indicate the involvement of extracellular matrix macromolecules in embryonic organization.