History of the use of the Mouse Embryo Model

Introduction

The mouse has contributed to an important part of research and findings in the biomedical field since the middle of the sixteenth century (Hendrich et al. 2004). In particular, the research of the mouse embryo, has continued into and multiplied within the 20th century.

It's popularity over time in mammalian biology, biomedicine, immunology, oncology, pathology, and genetics is a result of:

The efficient mouse breeding system: Which consistently monitors the characterisitcs, that are precisley known, generation after generation, thereby producing highly standardised strains (Hedrich et al. 2004).

The metabolic and internal anatomical similarities between the mouse and the human allows for comparisons. Because of these similarities, they share similar diseases, for example, cancer, diabetes, autoimmunity, endocrine disease, and neurological dysfunctions (Hedrich et al. 2004).

The ability to manipulate and 'shut-down' genes from the Mouse genome(???).

Please note that the following findings are based on research which have utilised the model of the mouse embryo.

1895: Robert Heinrich Johannes Sobotta (1869-1945), German Anatomist [1]

Researched the fertilisation and cleavage of the mouse's egg (Sobotta, 1895). Link to Dr. Sobotta's research [2]

What did he find?

The corpus Luteum is formed by the enlargement of the epithelial cells of the follicle, aided by growth of connective tissue.*There is no distinction between corpora lutea vera and corpora lutea spuria.
The corpora lutea do not degenerate. They remain unchanged during the life of the animal, and therefore add to the size of the ovary.

1958: Professor Dame Anne Laura Dorinthea McLaren (1927-2007), Developmental Biologist

Developed the first birth of mice in-vitro. Link to Published article [3]

1962: George Todaro (1937-) and Howard Green

By studying the fibroblast cells of the mouse embryo , they explained how cells behave in a similar fashion once they have undergone transformation (Bhamrah et al. 2002).

How did they do this?

Todaro and Green cultured the fibroblast cells from the mouse embryo.

What did they find?

A few weeks after the culture, the growth rate of the Fibroblast cells slowed down. They thought that the cells, as with normal human fibroblast cells, would eventually stop didviding and die. However this was not the case.

Two to three months later, the cell growth rate increased. This meant that the resulting new population of cells had undergone spontaneous transformation. The resulting permanently dividing cell line, called the '3T3 cell line', have been growing in culture for over 20 years. (Bhamrah et al. 2002)

1977: R.J. Mullen

What did he do?

Fused the normal and reeler mouse embryo at the morula stage to produce allophenic mice. ('The reeler mouse as a model of brain development')

1996: Toshio Ohshima, Jerrold M. Wardt, Chang-Goo Huht, Glenn Longenecker, Veeranna, Harish C.Pant, Roscoe O. Bradyt, Lee J. Martins, and Ashok B. Kulkarni

Generated Cyclin-dependant kinase 5 (Cdk5) null mice (a type of mutant mice) by homologous recombination to assess the role of Cdk5 in vivo. Targeted ES cells were injected into blastocysts to generate chimaric mice