Effects of feeder cells (human cancer cell lines) on the development of mouse embryos by co-culture.

In order to establish the best co-culture system on embryogenesis such as egg fertilization, egg cleavage, blastocyst formation, hatching and implantation etc., several kinds of cell lines as a feeder cell and mouse fertilized eggs (zygotes) were co-cultured in the organ culture dish, and embryotrophic effects of feeder cells were investigated. Best feeder cell on the embryogenesis was SKG-II cell line derived from squamous cell carcinoma of human uterine cervix which was chosen from 10 of the human tumor cell lines. Furthermore, in order to isolate and determinate embryotrophic factors produced by feeder cells, we established a SKG-II SF subline which was grown in serum free medium derived from SKG-II cell line. The SKG-II SF cell line secreted an epidermal growth factor (EGF) into the medium. Also, cleavaged egg produced and secreted interleukin (IL)-1 alpha into the medium.