Accelerate and Standardize the Creation of Genetically Engineered Models with the BlastoKit®
April 30, 2010 – A key step of chimera creation is the production of injectable blastocysts. To help streamline the blastocyst development process, Charles River has developed the BlastoKit®.
In order to harvest sufficient viable injectable blastocysts, each lab is required to set up its own colony of breeder males and to purchase females of breeding age. Doing so requires dedicated resources, including competence and space, equipment and time commitments. Experienced researchers also recognize that there can be variations in blastocyst quantity and quality that are difficult to control.
The Charles River BlastoKit® provides frozen morulae that are supported with technical recommendations. After embryo thawing and overnight culture, the BlastoKit® permits researchers to produce injectable blastocysts while using less space and other resources, including animals, while still maintaining the benefits of standardization. Because of centralized embryo production, the number of embryos produced per breeding male is higher. These two points contribute to a reduction in animal use.
In addition, the BlastoKit® helps control the quality of embryo production. The need to euthanize females for no embryo production and to thaw valuable ES cell clones without definitively having a blastocyst to inject is almost eliminated. Germ line transmission using BlastoKit®-derived embryos has been validated by a range of users in private and academic laboratories for both C57BL/6NCrl and BALB/cAnNCrl embryos.
Blastocyst development rates (at least 70% for C57BL/6NCrl and at least 50% for BALB/cAnNCrl embryos) and birth rates (up to 40% for C57BL/6NCrl embryos) obtained during beta testing are higher than in traditional methods.
To learn more about the Blastokit®, please click here or contact us at askcharlesriver@crl.com.
Related Information: