Electric-Field-Induced Fusion of Blastomeres

Abstract

The technique of in vitro cell-to-cell fusion with regard to mammalian gametes and embryonic cells is of great importance for research on nucleo-cytoplasmic interactions in early embryogenesis [1] and for introducing nuclei into eggs [2, 3]. Current fusion procedures applied to mammalian gametes and early embryos have certain inherent limitations and more often than not they are not precisely controlled [4]. In contrast, the new technique of electrofusion which has been developed in the last few years (5–6–7–8) appears to bypass some of those disadvantages by using the parameters of the vectorial system which is exactly defined and hence repeatable.