The developmental potential of a euploid male teratocarcinoma cell line after blastocyst injection.

A karyotypically normal male embryonal carcinoma (EC) cell line, P19, produced large numbers of chimaeras in midgestation after groups of cells were injected into mouse blastocysts. A wide variety of apparently normal tissues were colonized by the EC cells but most chimaeras were also morphologically abnormal. Few live chimaeras were produced and all contained tumours of EC cell origin as well as EC contributions to normal tissues. This apparently incomplete regulation of the EC cells by the embryonic environment was not due to EC cell variation, since a clonal subline. P19S18, produced similar patterns of colonization. It was also not caused by the inability of the blastocyst to regulate large numbers of injected EC cells, since a single P19S18 cell could contribute to both normal and tumour tissue in the same mouse. Neither a high rate of colonization of the embryo nor a normal karyotype is, therefore, sufficient to ensure reversion of EC cells to normal embryonic behaviour.