Stem Cells

Cells dissociated from an embryonic blastula can also be targets for transfection. Other methods may also be used to put DNA into the cells. Transfected cells can be returned to a blastula, and the blastula reimplanted in the female animal. If transfection was successful, the resulting animal is a chimera with different parts of the body coming from transfected and non-transfected cells. The strategy is also used to generate chimeric knock-out animals.   Chimeric animals whose germ cells stem from successfully transfected cells can be bred and pass on the transgene to the next generation. The animals of this generation are homogeneously transgenic.

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