Embryonic and extraembryonic stem cell lines derived from single mouse blastomeres

The most basic objection to human embryonic stem (ES) cell research is rooted in the fact that ES cell derivation deprives embryos of any further potential to develop into a complete human being. ES cell lines are conventionally isolated from the inner cell mass of blastocysts and, in a few instances, from cleavage stage embryos. So far, there have been no reports in the literature of stem cell lines derived using an approach that does not require embryo destruction. Here we report an alternative method of establishing ES cell lines-using a technique of single-cell embryo biopsy similar to that used in pre-implantation genetic diagnosis of genetic defects-that does not interfere with the developmental potential of embryos. Five putative ES and seven trophoblast stem (TS) cell lines were produced from single blastomeres, which maintained normal karyotype and markers of pluripotency or TS cells for up to more than 50 passages. The ES cells differentiated into derivatives of all three germ layers in vitro and in teratomas, and showed germ line transmission. Single-blastomere-biopsied embryos developed to term without a reduction in their developmental capacity. The ability to generate human ES cells without the destruction of ex utero embryos would reduce or eliminate the ethical concerns of many.     

French influence on Britain

Jér?me Lejeune, the French geneticist who discovered the cause of Down's syndrome, is reported to have influenced British Members of Parliament in their vote to ban research on human embryos. Lejeune, brought to Britain to address Parliament by the anti-abortion lobby, said that embryonic research was unnecessary and would not add to knowledge about congenital defects, as argued in the Warnock Committee's report. Lejeune, who is a member of the French pro-life lobby, believes that embryos are persons and should not be subjected to experimentation. His current research concerns the chemical causes of congenital defects, which he predicts may be treatable with drugs in the future.     

几种常用实验动物的超排比较

随着对动物胚胎研究的不断发展,哺乳动物的卵及早期胚胎获取,以及包括体外培养在内的各项实验技术也已日趋成熟和完善。目前,能够获得大量胚胎来源的方法仍为超数排卵,完善的超数排卵技术依然是胚胎移植成功的先决条件。本实验应用国产激素PMSG+HCG的组合对8只家兔、20只短尾仓鼠和25只昆明小鼠进行了超数排卵处理。以昆明小鼠为主,通过比较,系统研究了不同动物、激素剂量、发情周期以及动物本身体质、季节、人工饲养环境等因素对超排效果的影响。     

In vitro fertilization: MRC tests the climate

It is reported that Britain's Medical Research Council has published guidelines for MRC-supported research involving human embryos obtained through in vitro fertilization. In ethics committee-approved projects, researchers may use deliberately fertilized ova or, with parents' consent, fertilized ova left over from therapeutic programs. In vitro culture of human embryos is permitted only up to the implantation stage. Conditions are also set for experiments on interspecies fertilization and on freezing of embryos. Concern over physician and public reception of these guidelines has been expressed by the British Medical Association.     

Embryo research: British Commons vote for ban

The British House of Commons, overriding opposition by party leaders, approved Enoch Powell's bill which would ban all experiments on human embryos and restrict their use to therapeutic in vitro fertilization procedures. Some members of Parliament have urged the government to announce a timetable for its own, more comprehensive legislation based on the recommendations of the Warnock Committee Report. This action would erode support for Powell's bill, which Lady Warnock warns could end in vitro fertilization in Britain.     

Human embryonic stem cell lines derived from single blastomeres

The derivation of human embryonic stem (hES) cells currently requires the destruction of ex utero embryos. A previous study in mice indicates that it might be possible to generate embryonic stem (ES) cells using a single-cell biopsy similar to that used in preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), which does not interfere with the embryo's developmental potential. By growing the single blastomere overnight, the resulting cells could be used for both genetic testing and stem cell derivation without affecting the clinical outcome of the procedure. Here we report a series of ten separate experiments demonstrating that hES cells can be derived from single blastomeres. In this proof-of-principle study, multiple biopsies were taken from each embryo using micromanipulation techniques and none of the biopsied embryos were allowed to develop in culture. Nineteen ES-cell-like outgrowths and two stable hES cell lines were obtained. The latter hES cell lines maintained undifferentiated proliferation for more than eight months, and showed normal karyotype and expression of markers of pluripotency, including Oct-4, SSEA-3, SSEA-4, TRA-1-60, TRA-1-81, nanog and alkaline phosphatase. These cells retained the potential to form derivatives of all three embryonic germ layers both in vitro and in teratomas. The ability to create new stem cell lines and therapies without destroying embryos would address the ethical concerns of many, and allow the generation of matched tissue for children and siblings born from transferred PGD embryos.     

Separation of the genetic loci for the H-Y antigen and for testis determination on human Y chromosome

The mammalian Y chromosome encodes a testis-determining factor (termed TDF in the human), a master regulator of sex differentiation. Embryos with a Y chromosome develop testes and become males whereas embryos lacking a Y chromosome develop ovaries and become females. Expression of H-Y, a minor histocompatibility antigen, may also be controlled by a gene on the Y chromosome, and it has been proposed that this antigen is the testis-determining factor. We have tested the postulated identity of H-Y and TDF in the human. H-Y typing with T cells was carried out on a series of sex-reversed humans (XX males and XY females), each shown by DNA hybridization to carry part but not all of the Y chromosome. This deletion analysis maps the gene for H-Y to the long arm or centromeric region of the human Y chromosome, far from the TDF locus, which maps to the distal short arm.     

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…     

Effects of different nuclear transfer and activation methods on the development of mouse somatic cell cloned embryos

A group of adult somatic cell cloned mice were obtained by using cumulus cells as nuclei donor cells. To study the effect of different nuclear transfer (NT) and activation methods on the development of mouse cloned embryos, embryos were reconstructed using two traditional NT methods (electrofusion and direct injection) and four activation treatments (electric pulse, ethanol, SrCl2 and electric pulse combined with SrCl2). The data showed that the efficiency of reconstruction using the direct injection method is significantly higher (90.7%) than that of the electrofusion method (49.7%). Parthenogenetic embryos can develop to blastocyst stage with three activation conditions, including ethanol, electric pulse and SrCl2; however, the rates of development to blastocyst after ethanol and electric pulse acti-vation (52.4%, 54.2%) are significantly lower than after SrCl2 activation (76.9%). Treatment of embryos for 6 h with 10 mmol/L SrCl2 was found to be the best condition for activation of parthenogenetic as well as reconstructed embryos. By contrast, reconstructed embryos failed to develop to blastocyst stage after being activated by ethanol. The use of either injection or electrofusion for embryo reconstruction affected the pre-implantation development. However, after transfer in pseudopregnant mice, cloned mice were obtained from both methods.     

斑马鱼胚胎发育的功能染色体组

随着人类和其他物种染色体组测序工作的完成 ,人类科学最大的任务就是阐明数以万计的基因的生物功能。人类和动物生命周期都从受精卵开始 ,然后一步一步地发育成具有多元组织和器官的生物体。在胚胎形成过程中 ,伴随着基因生成物的协同运作 ,基因按其固有的程序陆续显现出影响 ,从而决定并实现整个人体程序。如果使用适当的动物做模型的话 ,可以加速胚胎功能染色体组的研究。斑马鱼就是这项研究一个很好的模型。斑马鱼最大的优点就是产卵多、体外胚胎发育、体积小、容易养活 ,除此以外 ,很多的分子、细胞、胚胎和基因操作在斑马鱼身上都很容…     

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.     

青饲玉米幼胚的组织培养及其再生植株的开花结实

本研究采用青饲玉米为材料，对幼胚愈伤组织的诱导、继代、植株再生、再生苗培养和移栽、生长及开花结实等方面进行了系统的研究。从２８种基因型中获得愈伤组织并进行分类，获得的再生植株，移栽后，生长正常并花，经多次重复授粉后获得了自交和杂交种子。     

Role of paternal and maternal genomes in mouse development

There has been much speculation on whether mammalian eggs with two male pronuclei can develop normally. Eggs with two female pronuclei can sometimes develop as far as the 25-somite stage but with only very meagre extraembryonic tissues. We suggested that the genome undergoes specific imprinting during gametogenesis and that some paternal genes may be necessary for normal development of the extraembryonic tissues, in which only the maternal X chromosome remains active. However, the need for the maternal genome for development to term is not yet unequivocally established. The detailed study described here demonstrates that while between 40 and 50% of heterozygous reconstituted eggs with a male and a female pronucleus develop to term, none of the eggs with two male pronuclei does so. Furthermore, embryos in the latter case are very retarded, even though the trophoblast develops relatively well compared with embryos having two female pronuclei. Our combined results indicate that while the paternal genome is essential for the normal development of extraembryonic tissues, the maternal genome may be essential for some stages of embryogenesis.     

Sex determination. Viviparous lizard selects sex of embryos

No one suspected that temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD), whereby the sex of embryos depends on the temperature at which they develop, might occur in viviparous (live-bearing) reptiles, because thermoregulation in the mother results in relatively stable, raised gestation temperatures. But here we show that developing embryos of the actively thermoregulating viviparous skink Eulamprus tympanum are subject to TSD, offering the mother the chance to select the sex of her offspring and a mechanism to help to balance sex ratios in wild populations.     

21日龄鸡胚中金黄色葡萄球菌的PCR检测

为检测某鸡场21日龄鸡胚金黄色葡萄球菌感染情况, 针对其特有的耐热核酸酶基因(Nuc)设计并合成1对引物进行PCR扩增, 建立特异性检测金黄色葡萄球菌的PCR方法. 对18个21日龄鸡胚培养、分离, 获得18株疑似金黄色葡萄球菌菌落. 用建立的PCR方法对18份疑似样品进行扩增获得4份金黄色葡萄球菌的阳性扩增, 证实该鸡群21日龄鸡胚中金黄色葡萄球菌的感染率为22%(4/18). 本文中基于Nuc基因建立的PCR检测方法是检测鸡胚中金黄色葡萄球菌快速、特异的分子生物学方法.     

腰带长体茧蜂卵和早期胚胎体外发育的初步研究

 通过在体外条件下培养腰带长体茧蜂侧输卵管处解剖得到的脱去滤泡细胞的成熟卵及从寄生早期幼虫血淋巴中获得的初期胚胎,对腰带长体茧蜂卵和胚胎的初期发育进行了初步的研究。结果表明,以TC-100为基础培养基加入一定量寄主幼虫血浆和胎牛血清时,从侧输卵管处解剖得到的卵在合适的体外培养条件下可以进行卵裂,且卵裂产生的初级胚胎可以被释放到培养基中。初级胚胎可以在胚外膜内进行分裂生成二级胚胎细胞,但二级胚胎不能被释放出胚外膜。从寄生初期寄主幼虫体内得到的初级胚胎可以在体外培养条件下长大并持续通过胚外膜凹陷进行增殖,但无法进入个体发育阶段,胚胎最后黑化死亡。     

Human pregnancy following cryopreservation, thawing and transfer of an eight-cell embryo

The widespread use of clomiphene citrate and exogenous gonadotrophins for in vitro fertilization (IVF) in human frequently results in the production of multiple embryos. Replacement of more than two embryos increases pregnancy rate but may result in multiple pregnancies with increased pre- and post-natal abnormality. Preservation of embryos for a limited time allows fewer embryos to be replaced on several different occasions and thus the problems of multiple pregnancy can be minimized, the effectiveness of a single IVF procedure increased and embryo replacement in adverse maternal conditions avoided. Preimplantation embryos have been successfully cryopreserved in many animal species. The sensitivity of embryos to cooling and freezing varies between species and stages of embryo development. We report here the cryopreservation procedures that allow a high survival rate of four- and eight-cell human embryos and the establishment of a pregnancy following the freezing and storage of an eight-cell embryo for 4 months in liquid nitrogen. The pregnancy terminated at 24 weeks' gestation due to development of a septic Streptomyces agalactiae chorion amnionitis after premature membrane rupture.     

In vitro fertilization: BMA reports on ethics

A summary is provided of the interim ethical guidelines on human in vitro fertilization and embryo replacement issued in May by the British Medical Association. The guidelines approve the therapeutic use of the new techniques. Like the provisional guidelines published last year by the Medical Research Council, they also endorse research on early embryos if the goal of such research is clearly defined and clinically relevant.