Figure 1.

Gene delivery into early-to-mid-gestational fetuses. (A) Gene delivery into somite-stage embryos. Introduction of exogenous nucleic acids into the abdomen of anesthetized pregnant female is possible through a glass micropipette under a dissecting microscope after exposure of the uterus. (B) Gene delivery into fetuses at embryonic day (E) 12.5. At E12.5, the fetus (embryo) is visible through the yolk sac (YS) upon surgical dissection of the uterus under a dissecting microscope. Thus, it is possible to administer intrabrain (a), intraamniotic (b), intraplacental (c), intrahepatic (d), intracardiac (e), intravitelline (f), and skin (g) injections of genome-editing components using a micropipette for in utero gene delivery. (C) Gene delivery into fetuses using transplacental gene delivery (TPGD). Tail-vein injection of a solution containing nucleic acids into pregnant female mice is also a useful in vivo approach to introduce nucleic acids into E9.5–12.5 fetuses. This figure was drawn in-house and reproduced with permission from Sato et al. [6], published by MDPI, 2020.