A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GAP JUNCTION-MEDIATED INTERCELLULAR COMMUNICATION AND THE INVITRO DEVELOPMENTAL CAPACITY OF MURINE EMBRYONIC STEM-CELLS

Two metabolic cooperation-deficient variants, 1P9 and 2P2[1], have been isolated from the embryonic stem cell line B2B2. Characterization of these cell lines has shown that both variants are severely restricted with respect to embryoid body differentiation capacity while a revertant isolated from 1P9, designated 2H4, has its differentiation phenotype restored to a level comparable with that of the parent line. These results are interpreted as indicating that the metabolic cooperation deficiency and the restricted differentiation phenotype of 1P9 are causally related. A revertant isolated from 2P2[1], designated H19, remains severely restricted with regard to embryoid body differentiation, suggesting that in these lines a secondary event deleterious to differentiation, but unrelated to metabolic cooperation, has taken place. © 1992.