A comparative analysis of chick culturing methods on skeletogenesis

This study presents a detailed description of these effects by comparing two different culturing methods: windowed (in the shell) eggs and ex‐ovo or shell‐less culturing to normal development. Using whole mount bone staining, we determined that there is no significant difference in the length of the ossified region of intramembranous and endochondral bones in control versus window cultured embryos. However, these bones are significantly under‐ossified in shell‐less embryos. Shell‐less embryos also exhibit abnormalities in endochondral bones. Intramembranous bones, interestingly, are morphologically normal in shell‐less embryos. This study provides the first detailed description of ossification in window (in‐ovo) and shell‐less (ex‐ovo) cultured embryos compared to controls (in ovo). Patterning of the skeleton is unaffected regardless of culturing method. We conclude that studies involving endochondral bones should not utilise shell‐less culturing methods. This data has been lacking in the literature and will serve as an important resource for those using cultured chick embryos in the study of skeletogenesis. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Source: The Anatomical Record Part B: The New Anatomist - January 31, 2015 Category: Anatomy Authors: Karyn Jourdeuil, Christine Hammer, Tamara Franz‐Odendaal Tags: Full Length Article Source Type: research