Second meiotic division and polar body formation in mouse eggs fertilized in vitro

Abstract

AbstractThe second meiotic division and polar body formation in mouse eggs fertilized in vitro were observed by phase‐contrast and polarizing microscopy, and recorded by time‐lapse cinematography. Eggs were collected from oviducts of mice that had been superovulated by injections of PMS and HCG. Some eggs, inseminated with spermatozoa that had been collected from caudae epididymides of mature male mice and cultured for two to three hours before insemination, were observed continuously on a glass slide under a phase microscope. Other eggs were inseminated in Petri dishes in a 5% CO2 incubator and examined every 20 minutes for 180 minutes. Compatible results in both sets of eggs showed that formation of the second polar body began 25–40 minutes after fusion of spermatozoon with the vitellus; it was completed 40–60 minutes later; anaphase II lasted approximately five minutes before the appearance of the furrow abstricting the second polar body. It is suggested that the furrowing associated with second polar body formation is guided by the same kind of forces that divide a cell mitotically.