Serial nuclear transfer improves the development of interspecies reconstructed giant panda (Aluropoda melanoleuca) embryos

Interspecies somatic nuclear transfer (NT) may provide a new approach for preservation of the endangered rare species. Previous interspecies cloning studies have shown that a nucleus from a quiescent somatic cell supports early development of reconstructed embryos in the ooplasm from another species. In this study, we transferred nonquiescent somatic cells from a giant panda into the perivitelline space of the enucleated rabbit oocytes. After electrofusion (at the rate of 71.6%) and electrical activation, 4.2% of the panda-rabbit reconstructed embryos developed to blastocyst in vitro. For improving the development rate of reconstructed embryos, we used serial NT in this study, i.e. blastomeres from reconstructed morulae were transferred into the perivitelline space of the enucleated rabbit oocytes. The fusion rates in the groups of serial I, serial II and serial III were 79.5%, 84.1% and 78.0%, respectively, having no difference with that of somatic group. And the blastocyst rates in serial NT groups were 19.4%, 13.5% and 10.3%, respectively, which are significantly higher than that in somatic NT group. These results indicate that the nuclei from nonquiescent somatic cells can support early development of reconstructed embryos and serial NT can improve the development rate of interspecies reconstructed embryos. These authors contributed equally to this work.     

卵母细胞老化对小鼠体细胞克隆胚发育的影响

就小鼠卵母细胞的卵龄对克隆胚的体外发育能力的影响进行了检测,以确定最佳的取卵时间,以及取卵后进行核移植操作的可耐受的时间。采用PMSG和hCG超排B6D2F1雌鼠。在体内老化实验中,分别于注射hCG后13,15,17,20h取卵用于核移植操作;在体外老化实验中,所有的卵均于注射hCG后13h取出并培养,然后在13,15,17,20h进行核移植操作。每个时间点的核移植操作在1h内完成,重构的胚胎培养1h后进行激活。结果显示:在体内老化实验中,注射hCG后13h取卵,获得的克隆囊胚发育率最高,为56.0%,15h取卵仍维持了其支持胚胎体外发育的能力,但17h及更长时间后取的卵,重构后的囊胚发育率显著下降(18.1%)。注射hCG后15h取的卵孤雌发育率最高(囊胚发育率为90.1%),并在17h仍维持较高的孤雌发育能力,在20h显著下降。在体外老化试验中,于注射hCG后13h取卵,分别于13,15,17h重构,都获得了较高的囊胚发育率(分别为57.7%,52.2%,46.3%),而在注射hCG后20h重构,囊胚发育率显著下降(14.8%)。体外老化的孤雌胚在注射hCG后22h激活时囊胚发育率显著下降。结果表明:卵母细胞在体内和体外老化都影响克隆胚的体外发育,最佳取卵时间为注射hCG后13h,取卵后立即用于重构可获得最佳囊胚发育率;体内、外老化卵支持重构胚较好发育的时间间隔是不同的,体内老化卵支持重构胚发育能力从注射hCG后17h开始下降,体外老化卵则发生在20h。这些结果可以指导操作,有利于在应用核移植进行其他基础研究时降低操作引起的误差。     

Effects of different nuclear recipients on developmental potential of mouse somatic nuclear transfer embryos

Somatic cell nuclear transfer has been succeeded in procedures of nuclear transfer. One is single nucleartransfer, the other is serial nuclear transfer. Viable animals have been cloned in different species using both me-thods[1—6]. Different nuclear recipients and donors wereused in serial nuclear transfer, namely, transferring thenuclear of reconstructed embryo into enucleated MⅡoocytes[7], transferring the nuclear of reconstructed em-bryos at one cell stage into enucleated zygote[4] and t…     

成纤维细胞和ES细胞在小鼠和兔去核卵母细胞内发育

以昆明白小鼠成纤维细胞和胚胎干（ES）细胞作为供核细胞，以昆明白小鼠和日本大耳白兔的MⅡ期去核卵母细胞作为受体，采用核移植方法，构楚了克隆胚胎．在同种克隆中，以ES细胞为供核细胞的克隆胚胎卵裂率明显低于以成纤维细胞为供核细胞的克隆胚胎卵裂率（24．4％相对于56．9％，P〈0．05），1．8％的ES细胞克隆胚胎发育到囊胚阶段，而成纤维细胞克隆胚胎没能发育到囊胚阶段；在异种克隆中，以ES细胞为供核细胞的克隆胚胎卵裂率（89．6％）和囊胚发育率（18．8％）明显高于以成纤维细胞为供核细胞的克隆胚胎卵裂率（54．2％）和囊胚发育率（4．2％）．     

Clone of Chinese Jinan red-cross yellow cattle and evaluation of reproductive characteristics of cloned calf

Somatic cell clone technology is a viable approach to preserving endangered livestock and wildlife genetic resources. In the present research, somatic cell nuclear transfer （SCNT） was performed using granulose cells from the critical endangered Chinese red-cross yellow cattle as donor cells. A total of 211 oocytes were manipulated and 166 （79%） of them were successfully enucleated. 112 （67.4%） SCNT embryos were reconstructed, 94 （83%） of them cleaved, and 48 （43 %） of them developed to blastocyst stage. SCNT blastocysts were transferred to 6 Holstein recipients, and 2 （33%） of them were found to be pregnant. One of them maintained to term and delivered a calf, whereas another aborted. Effect of different fusion buffer （mannitol vs. Zimmerman fusion buffer） and different activation methods （calcium ionophore＋6-DMAP vs. cycloheximide＋CB） on fusion rate and development of SCNT embryos were investigated. The results indicated that： （i） on condition of two DC pulses of 2.5 kV/cm for 10 μs each, fusion rates were higher in mannitol solution than in Zimmerman fusion buffer （71% vs. 61%, respectively, p 〈 0.05）, but the blastocysts rates did not differ between two treatments （36 % vs. 39 %, p〉0.05 ）; （ii） There was no significant difference in development rates to the blastocyst stage for SCNT embryos activated by calcium ionophore＋6-DMAP or by cycloheximide＋CB （42% vs. 46%, respectively, p〉0.05）. Microsatellite DNA analysis examining 28 loci confirmed that the cloned calf was genetically identical to the donor Jinan red-cross yellow cattle and different from the recipient females. Growth and reproductive performance of cloned cow were evaluated, and there were no difference i cross-red n it between cloned and normal control Jinan yellow cattle. Furthermore, the cloned yellow cow has delivered a healthy yellow calf.     

Cloned pigs produced by nuclear transfer from adult somatic cells

Since the first report of live mammals produced by nuclear transfer from a cultured differentiated cell population in 1995 (ref. 1), successful development has been obtained in sheep, cattle, mice and goats using a variety of somatic cell types as nuclear donors. The methodology used for embryo reconstruction in each of these species is essentially similar: diploid donor nuclei have been transplanted into enucleated MII oocytes that are activated on, or after transfer. In sheep and goat pre-activated oocytes have also proved successful as cytoplast recipients. The reconstructed embryos are then cultured and selected embryos transferred to surrogate recipients for development to term. In pigs, nuclear transfer has been significantly less successful; a single piglet was reported after transfer of a blastomere nucleus from a four-cell embryo to an enucleated oocyte; however, no live offspring were obtained in studies using somatic cells such as diploid or mitotic fetal fibroblasts as nuclear donors. The development of embryos reconstructed by nuclear transfer is dependent upon a range of factors. Here we investigate some of these factors and report the successful production of cloned piglets from a cultured adult somatic cell population using a new nuclear transfer procedure.     

Green fluorescent protein （GFP） transsenic pig produced by somatic cell nuclear transfer

Transgenic somatic cell nuclear transfer is a very promising route for producing transgenic farm animals. Research on GFP transgenic pigs can provide useful information for breeding transgenic pigs, human disease models and human organ xenotransplantation. In this study, a liposomal transfecUon system was screened and transgenic embryos were reconstructed by nuclear transfer of GFP positive cells into enucleated in vitro matured oocytes. The development of reconstructed embryos both in vitro and in vivo was observed, and GFP expression was determined. The results showed that porcine fe- tal-derived fibroblast cells cultured with 4.0 μL/mL liposome and 1.6 μg/mL plasmid DNA for 6 h resulted in the highest transfecUon rate （3.6%）. The percentage of GFP reconstructed embryos that de- veloped in vitro to the blastocyst stage was 10%. Of those the GFP positive percentage was 48%. Reconstructed transgenic embryos were transferred to 10 recipients. 5 of them were pregnant, and 3 delivered 6 cloned piglets in which 4 piglets were transgenic for the GFP as verified by both GFP protein expression and GFP DNA sequence analysis. The percentage of reconstructed embryos that resulted in cloned piglets was 1.0%; while the percentage of piglets that were transgenic was 0.7%. This is the first group of transgenic cloned pigs born in China, marking a great progress in Chinese transgenic cloned pig research.     

Production of transgenic blastocyst of sheep by somatic cell cloning

Five samples from primary cultures of five sheep ovarian granulosa cells were transfected by pEGFP- N1 DNA. Five transgenic positive cell lines, each from one of the five samples above, were used as donor nuclei for somatic nucleus transfer. A total of 352 in vitro matured and enucleated sheep oocytes were fused electrically with transgenic granulosa cells and 329 reconstructed embryos were obtained after activation by Ionomycin/6-DMAP, and these embryos were cultured in SOFaaBSA medium for 7 d. The result shows that 312 embryos (94.8%) had gone through cleavage and among them 63 (19.1%) had developed to the blastocyst stage. Expression of GFP gene was detected in various stages of early embryonic development by sampling randomly. Blastocyst rates given by the four cells treated with 0.5% FCS starvation was 19.6% (55/280) and it had not shown difference significantly (P＞0.05) with the result obtained with another cell line that had not gone through serum starvation (16.3%, 8/49). This experiment indicates that sheep transgenic embryos up to the blastocyst stage can be produced effectively by the combination of gene transfection in somatic cells in culture and somatic cell cloning.     

实验用小型猪胎儿成纤维细胞和骨髓间充质细胞为核供体生产转基因克隆胚胎

目的比较不同类型体细胞对生产转基因克隆胚胎效率的影响。方法利用脂质体介导的方法将质粒pEGFP-N1转染到五指山小型猪胎儿成纤维细胞和骨髓间充质细胞,经过G418筛选后均获得了阳性细胞株。然后分别以两种类型转基因细胞以及未转基因细胞为核供体进行体细胞核移植,比较不同类型供体细胞克隆胚胎的囊胚发育率。结果胎儿成纤维细胞和骨髓间充质细胞克隆胚的囊胚发育率差异不显著(P>0.05,8.3%vs.7.1%);转基因胎儿成纤维细胞(9.6%)和转基因骨髓间充质细胞(9.9%)克隆胚胎的囊胚发育率差异不显著(P>0.05,9.6%vs.9.9%);每一种类型供体细胞转基因与否对克隆胚的囊胚发育率无影响(P>0.05)。结论通过体细胞核移植技术,小型猪骨髓间充质细胞与胎儿成纤维细胞均可有效地生产转基因囊胚。     

Production of transgenic calves by somatic cellnuclear transfer

Bovine fetal oviduct epithelial cells were transfected with constructed double marker selective vector(pCE-EGFP-IRES-Neo-dNdB) containing the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) and neomycin-resistant(Neo^r) genes by electroporation, and a transgenic cell line was obtained. Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) was cartied out using the transgenic cells as nuclei donor. A total of 424 SCNT embryos were reconstructed and 208 (49.1%) of them developed to blastocyst stage. 17 blastocysts on D 7 after reconstruction were transferred to 17 surrogate calves,and 5 (29.4%) recipients were found to be pregnant. Three of them maintained to term and delivered three cloned calves.PCR and Southern blot analysis confirmed the integration of transgene in all of the three cloned calves. In addition, expression of EGFP was detected in biopsy isolated from the transgenic cloned calves and fibroblasts derived from the biopsy. Our results suggest that transgenic calves could be efficiently produced by SCNT using transgenic cells as nuclei donor. Furthermore, all cloned animals could be ensured to be transgenic by efficiently pre-screening transgenic cells and SCNT embryos using the constructed double marker selective vector.     

Embryonic stem cell as nuclear donor could promote in vitro development of the heterogeneous reconstructed embryo

The nucleus of a somatic cell could be dedifferentiated and reprogrammed in an enucleated heterogeneous oocyte. Some reconstructed oocytes could develop into blastocysts in vitro, and a few could develop into term normally after transferred into foster mothers, but most of cloning embryos fail to develop to term. In order to evaluate the efficacy of embryonic stem cell as nucleus donor in interspecific animal cloning, we reconstructed enucleated rabbit oocytes with nuclei from mouse ES cells, and analyzed the developmental ability of reconstructed embryos in vitro. Two kinds of fibroblast cells were used as donor control, one derived from ear skin of an adult Kunming albino mouse, and the other derived from a mouse fetus. Three types of cells were transferred into perivitelline space under zona pellucida of rabbit oocytes respectively. The reconstructed oocytes were fused and activated by electric pulses, and cultured in vitro. The developmental rate of reconstructed oocytes derived from embryonic stem cells was 16.1%, which was significantly higher than that of both the adult mouse fibroblast cells (0%-3.1%, P < 0.05) and fetus mouse fibroblast cells (2.1%-3.7%, P < 0.05). Chromosome analysis confirmed that blastocyst cells were derived from ES donor cell. These observations show that reprogramming is easier in interspecific embryos reconstructed with ES cells than that reconstructed with somatic cells, and that ES cells have the higher ability to direct the reconstructed embryos development normally than fibroblast cells.     

小鼠四倍体半克隆胚胎发育研究

半克隆(Semi-Cloned)胚胎是通过注射体细胞核到未去核的卵母细胞中产生的。在半克隆胚胎中,体细胞被用来作为精子的替代物。然而,由于异常的染色体分离,构建的半克隆胚胎在激活后形成了非整倍体而导致胚胎发育受到严重影响,不能发育到期。本研究通过抑制小鼠半克隆胚胎在激活过程中染色体数目减半,避免非整倍体胚胎形成,研究四倍体半克隆(TetraploidSemi-cloned,TSC)胚胎的发育和体细胞核的掺入对胚胎发育的影响。结果显示,TSC胚胎的体外发育率显著高于二倍体半克隆胚胎,与正常受精卵及孤雌激活对照无显著性差异,但TSC胚胎的细胞数在桑椹胚和囊胚期比正常二倍体受精胚胎和孤雌激活胚胎少。通过Oct-4染色发现,TSC胚胎囊胚期内细胞团(InnerCellMass,ICM)细胞很少或者没有。移植63个四倍体半克隆胚胎到3只假孕母鼠体内,得到20个胎盘,但没有得到胎儿。组蛋白乙酰化和DNA甲基化检测显示,部分TSC胚胎在囊胚期没有形成正常受精胚胎在ICM和滋养外胚层(Trophectoderm,TE)之间的差异分布。TSC胚胎的基因表达不依赖于细胞分裂次数而依赖于发育时间。虽然TSC胚胎避免了二倍体半克隆胚胎形成非整倍体现象,但由于TSC胚胎没有ICM细胞或ICM细胞很少,所以只能形成胎盘而不能形成胎儿。本实验第一次较为全面地研究了TSC胚胎的发育,同时也为研究体细胞核再程序化、基因打靶技术提供了一种新的途径。     

Cloned pigs derived from somatic cell nuclear transfer embryos cultured in vitro at low oxygen tension

Great progress have been made in animal cloning in China, as evidenced by the live births of cloned cat- tle[1,2], goats[3,4], and sheep[5]. In contrast, pig cloning is still in its infancy though limited fundamental studieshave been conducted[6]. It is g…     

Aberrant DNA methylation in cloned ovine embryos

By using the approach of immunofluorescence staining with an antibody against 5-methylcytosine （5MeC）, the present study detected the DNA methylation patterns of cloned ovine embryos. The embryos derived from in vitro fertilization were also examined for reference purpose. The results showed that： （1） during the preimplantation development, cloned embryos displayed a similar demethylation profile to the fertilized embryos; that is, the methylation level decreased to the lowest at 8-cell stage, and then increased again at morulae stage. However, methylation level was obviously higher in cloned embryos than in stage-matched fertilized embryos, especially at 8-cell stage and afterwards; （2） at blastocyst stage, the methylation pattern in cloned embryos was different from that in fertilized embryos. In cloned blastocyst, inner cell mass （ICM） exhibited a comparable level to trophectoderm cells （TE）, while in in-vitro fertilized blastocyst the methylation level of ICM was lower than that of TE, which is not consistent with that reported by other authors. These results indicate that DNA methylation is abnormally reprogrammed in cloned embryos, implying that aberrant DNA methylation reprogramming may be one of the factors causing cloned embryos developmental failure.     

小鼠不同类型孤雌激活卵的形成及其孤雌胚发育状况的研究

注射hCG18h后收集小鼠卵母细胞,采用不同试剂和作用不同时间对其进行激活,观察不同类型激活卵的形成情况及孤雌胚的发育状况,并对单倍体孤雌胚进行了核型分析。结果表明：1）几种激活方法均可得到均质单倍体、嵌合单倍体、1个原核（1PN）的杂合二倍体和2个原核（2PN）的杂合二倍体4种孤雌激活类型。乙醇及Srcl2单独激活后出现单倍体的比率较高;而乙醇联合6-DMAP以及Srcl2联合CB激活后出现二倍体的比率较高;2）10％的乙醇单独作用10min,卵母细胞激活率最高,达到63．3％;在激活卯的原核类型上,2-细胞（嵌合单倍体）的比率随着乙醇刺激强度的增加而增加,但乙醇单独激活后过二细胞阻滞率及桑葚胚的发育率较差;3）10％的乙醇处理5min后染色观察发现出现2细胞嵌合单倍体的比例较高,但接着用6-DMAP分别处理2、4、6h,跟踪观察发现杂合二倍体类型出现比率随时间延长而升高,处理6h后出现2PN杂合二倍体比率最高,且过二细胞阻滞率及桑葚胚的发育率也显著高于乙醇单独激活,但嵌合单倍体数量较不加6-DMAP时却减少;4）10％的乙醇、2mmol／L的6-DMAP联合5μg／mL的CB处理6h后,过二细胞阻滞率及桑葚胚的发育率与不加CB比较差异不显著;5）10mmol／L的Srcl2单独及联合CB分别作用2、4h均能有效激活小鼠卵母细胞,单独及联合CB作用4h的激活率最高,两者差异不显著;在激活卵的原核类型,Srcl2单独激活后出现单倍体类型的比率较高,而联合CB后出现二倍体的比率较高,且过二细胞阻滞率及桑葚胚的发育率与Srcl2单独作用相比差异显著;6）先Srcl2处理1h后染色观察发现形成均质单倍体的比例较高,但接着用CB分别处理1、2h,跟踪观察发现杂合二倍体类型出现比率大大提高,同时发现均质单倍体类型数目反而有所减少。结论：小鼠卵母细?     

Scriptaid affects histone acetylation and the expression of development-related genes at different stages of porcine somatic cell nuclear transfer embryo during early development

Although the somatic cell nuclear transfer(SCNT) technique has been used extensively for cloning and generating transgenic pigs,the cloning efficiency is still very low.It has been proposed that the low efficiency of this technique is the result of incomplete epigenetic reprogramming and abnormal gene expression during early embryonic development.In this study,we investigate the effect of Scriptaid,a low-toxicity histone deacetylase inhibitor,on the developmental competence of porcine SCNT embryos.We found that treating SCNT embryos with 500 nmol/L Scriptaid for 15 h after activation significantly enhanced the blastocyst formation rate(27.7%) compared with the untreated group(control)(12.2%,P<0.05).Using an immunofluorescence technique to measure the average fluorescence intensity,we also found that treating SCNT embryos with Scriptaid increased the level of histone acetylation on histone H3 at lysine 14(acH3K14).Furthermore,treating embryos with Scriptaid increased the expression level of three genes that play important roles during embryonic development(Oct4,Klf4 at the blastocyst stage and Nanog at the 4-cell stage).Moreover,the expression level of the apoptosis-related gene Caspase-3 was significantly lower in the Scriptaid-treated SCNT embryos compared with the control SCNT embryos at the 4-cell and blastocyst stages.In conclusion,these results indicate that Scriptaid treatment improves the development and nuclear reprogramming of porcine SCNT embryos.     

Nuclear transfer using nonquiescent adult fibroblasts from a bovine ear

The natural reproduction of mammal is sexual reproduction, which needs fertilization involving sperm and oocyte. Nuclear transfer provided an asexual reproduction method for mammal. Donor cells used in previous experiments of nuclear transfer were mostly from undifferentiated or non-terminally differentiated cells, such as embryonic or fetal cells. However, since Wilmutet al. obtained a viable lamb by transfer of an adult sheep somatic cell into an enucleated oocyte, nuclear transfer using adult somatic cell has been successful in several species. Wilmutet al. suggested that it was a key factor for the success of somatic nuclear transfer to induce the donor cells into GO phase (“GO-phase hypothesis”). In order to verify the Gophase hypothesis, nonquiescent adult fibroblasts from a bovine ear were transferred into enucleated bovine oocytes. The experiments showed that the rate of electrofusion after micromanipulation was above 50%, the cleaving rate was 54.5% and 9.1% of those reconstructed embryos developed to 32-cell stage. These results indicate that for cattle, nuclei from nonquiescent adult somatic cells introduced into enucleated oocytes are at least capable of supporting early development.     

Smad2基因敲除小鼠冷冻胚胎库的建立

目的 建立Smad2基因敲除小鼠胚胎库。方法 利用OPS法对Smad2基因敲除小鼠胚胎进行玻璃化冷冻保存,并比较不同杂交组合小鼠的超数排卵数、解冻胚胎的复苏率及发育率。结果 两组不同杂交组合（Smad2^＋/－♂×Smad2^＋/－♀和Smad2^＋／－×Smad2^＋／－♀）小鼠平均超排卵数分别为14．13枚和24．60枚;复苏率分别为90．16％和91．67％;囊胚发育率分别为73．08％和77．05％。这些结果表明Smad2基因敲除杂合子母鼠的超排数量明显低于野生型母鼠的超排数量,而二者胚胎解冻后的复苏率和囊胚发育率没有显著差异。因此我们主要通过对野生型小鼠超数排卵,然后与Smad2基因敲除杂合子雄鼠交配的方法获取胚胎,进行玻璃化冷冻保存,现已冻存胚胎1256枚。结论 成功建立了Smad2基因敲除小鼠胚胎库。     

静电场对小鼠胚胎发育能力的影响

首次报道哺乳动物胚胎经静电场处理后对＂细胞阻滞＂和后期发育能力的影响．结果表明，用静电场处理小鼠体外受精卵和２细胞胚胎时，对克服小鼠＂２细胞阻滞＂无显著影响．处理发育于Ｍ１６＋１００μＭＥＤＴＡ＋输卵管上皮的２细胞胚胎时，显著提高了胚胎的发育能力，最佳处理剂量的囊胚率从４２％提高到６４％，囊胚孵化率从２０％提高到４５％．     

影响体细胞核移植重构胚发育的因素

目前已有多种动物被成功克隆,但存在着诸多未知因素,使体细胞核移植重构胚发育至囊胚阶段的比例过低,克隆动物存在早衰等异常现象.该文围绕这产生这些现象的根本原因、高度分化的体细胞核移入卵质后所发生的分子事件以及其影响因素如体细胞的来源和培养代数、细胞周期、核质相互作用、细胞核再程序化、线粒体等方面对体细胞核移植重构胚发育的影响等进行综述.