Long-Term Proliferation of Chicken Primordial Germ Cells Cultured In Vitro.

To promote the utilization of chicken primordial germ cells (PGCs) in transgenic manipulation, the in vitro culture of these cells was conducted. The PGCs were isolated from the blood vessels of chicken embryos, labeled with PKH26 red fluorescent cell linker, refined by picking up with micromanipulator attached with a fine glass pipette and cultured on feeder cells derived from chicken germinal ridges in medium DMEM plus F10 supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum (FCS) in 96 well plate at 39 C, 5% CO2 in air. The result of cell counting showed that in this condition chicken PGC number increased at least 29 times when the cells were cultured for up to 17 days and the proliferation of chicken PGCs was directly observed through cell tracing experiment, suggesting that feeder cells from germinal ridges might provide some kinds of essential factor(s) for PGC division.