Rachel Wiley

Choriallantoic Membrane Transplants for Embryonic Development Studies

Started Sept. 18, 2020

Abstract or project description

Chicken chorioallantoic membrane(CAM) transplants are proven effective tools for modeling a plethora of human biological mechanisms. Simple in structure, yet essential to several processes in embryo development, the membrane is versatile and easily accessible. Provided these characteristics, the CAM model is attractive to a large variety of biological studies. However, the most prominent application of the CAM is to model angiogenesis in humans. 

While the CAM assay is a common strategy to analyze angiogenesis, the methods most often warrant cell culture transplant. Chicken embryo limb transplant or using the membrane alone as another means of modeling angiogenesis is much less often utilized, despite improved cost and time efficiency. Given its relevance to ongoing cancer research, finding more accessible and efficient methods of using the CAM model, such as limb transplantation, is worthwhile. Moreover, being a relatively simple approach to modeling various biological processes, optimizing the accessibility of the procedure can make the CAM model a valuable learning tool for students interested in biology. When comparing the membrane without any transplant with and without aspirin, a known antiangiogenic compound, angiogenesis exhibits the expected trends, proving its efficacy in modeling human angiogenic reactions. Therefore, CAM limb transplants are proven to be a time and cost effective alternative to cell culture when studying human angiogenesis.