Culture of Explanted Rat Embryos in Rotating Tubes

Various methods have been developed in recent years for growing post-implantation rat and mouse embryos in culture. Young embryos—up to early somite stages—grow well in static medium, e.g. simple watch-glass cultures (New, 1966; Steele, 1972). Older embryos require flowing medium, as in the culture systems of New (1967), Tamarin New & Mizell, 1972). It consists of the culture of free-floating embryos in a constantly rotated tube which contains serum and an appropriate gas phase. We give here a short description of the method and a comparison of the results with those of the `circulator' method (New, 1967).