Figure 3.

In vitro outgrowth of blastocysts. Blastocysts were cultured for 5 days, then photographed, lysed, and PCR-genotyped. (a) In vitro cultured wild-type blastocyst displaying outgrowth of trophoblast giant cells and ICM. (b) Cultured Stat3^−/− blastocyst also displaying outgrowth of trophoblast giant cells and ICM, but the size of the ICM outgrowth was smaller than that of wild type. TG, trophoblast giant cell; ICM, inner cellular mass. (Bar = 40 μm.) (c) Graph of ICM outgrowth size. The shapes of ICM outgrowth were approximately ellipses, and surface areas were measured after 5 days of culture.