奶水牛卵胞质内单精子注射(ICSI)胚胎体外发育潜能的研究

本试验以奶水牛为研究对象,探讨卵胞质内单精子注射(ICSI)操作液中添加不同浓度聚乙烯吡咯烷酮(PVP)、细胞松弛素(CB)、透明质酸(HA)对早期胚胎发育的影响.旨在探寻一套适合奶水牛ICSI的操作程序,为高效生产奶水牛体外胚胎提供科学依据.结果表明:4%PVP组卵裂率高于6%PVP组和8%PVP组(65.8%vs59.5%、44.4%,P<0.05):4%PVP组囊胚率高于6%PVP组(21.0%vs16.2%,P<0.05)和8%PVP组(21.0%vs8.3%,P<0.01);添加CB组的卵裂率高于未加CB组(73.3%vs68.9%,P>0.05),添加CB组囊胚率高于未加CB组(22.2%vs20.0%,P<0.05);操作液中添加1.5mg/mL HA更有利于胚胎的发育.1.5mg/mL HA组和4%PVP组相比较,操作过程中润滑作用相似,HA组卵裂率略高于PVP组(71.0%vs65.8%,P<0.05);HA组囊胚数略高于PVP组(22.6%vs21.0%,P>0.05).

HSPC117 deficiency in cloned embryos causes placental abnormality and fetal death

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) has been successfully used in many species to produce live cloned offspring, albeit with low efficiency. The low frequency of successful development has usually been ascribed to incomplete or inappropriate reprogramming of the transferred nuclear genome. Elucidating the genetic differences between normal fertilized and cloned embryos is key to understand the low efficiency of SCNT. Here, we show that expression of HSPC117, which encodes a hypothetical protein of unknown function, was absent or very low in cloned mouse blastocysts. To investigate the role of HSPC117 in embryo development, we knocked-down this gene in normal fertilized embryos using RNA interference. We assessed the post-implantation survival of HSPC117 knock-down embryos at 3 stages: E9 (prior to placenta formation); E12 (after the placenta was fully functional) and E19 (post-natal). Our results show that, although siRNA-treated in vivo fertilized/produced (IVP) embryos could develop to the blastocyst stage and implanted without any difference from control embryos, the knock-down embryos showed substantial fetal death, accompanied by placental blood clotting, at E12. Furthermore, comparison of HSPC117 expression in placentas of nuclear transfer (NT), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and IVP embryos confirmed that HSPC117 deficiency correlates well with failures in embryo development: all NT embryos with a fetus, as well as IVP and ICSI embryos, had normal placental HSPC117 expression while those NT embryos showing reduced or no expression of HSPC117 failed to form a fetus. In conclusion, we show that HSPC117 is an important gene for post-implantation development of embryos, and that HSPC117 deficiency leads to fetal abnormalities after implantation, especially following placental formation. We suggest that defects in HSPC117 expression may be an important contributing factor to loss of cloned NT embryos in vivo. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

超声断尾精子头显微受精O输卵管内移植研究的初步报告

　目的　了解精子头细胞膜破损对ICSI 结果的影响。方法　采用兔精子经超声断尾处理后,对5 只母兔行单精 子头(核) 显微受精O输卵管腹壶部移植。结果　受精率及卵裂率分别达到72 %及91. 6 % ,稍高于正常对照组,但无统计学意 义。两只母兔移植后怀孕,一母兔已产下两只健康雌性仔兔。结论　精子头细胞膜破损并不影响ICSI 后的受精率、卵裂率及 怀孕产仔。该研究的开展,为建立一种新的基因导入方法奠定基础。

猕猴胚胎干细胞自我更新机理及WNT 信号通路在猕猴胚胎早期发育中作用的研究

尽管大部分动物实验是在啮齿类动物上开展的，我们仍然相信涉及人类的许多问题，如胚胎干细胞的体内功能、调亡和肿瘤形成等只有在非人灵长类模型上才能得到最好的回答。猕猴(标准的非人灵长类动物模型)在解剖、生理和代谢方面都和人类非常相似。人类很多神经疾病，如阿尔茨海默氏病、帕金森病，只能在非人灵长类模型上才能精确建模。所以研究猕猴胚胎干细胞自我更新的原理及猕猴胚胎早期发育，对研究免疫排斥，检测基于胚胎干细胞的治疗的可行性，安全性和有效性具有重要意义。本文一方面对胚胎干细胞维持自我更新和多潜能性的机理研究进行了综述，另一方面对以下两个方面的内容进行了研究： 1）运用寡核苷酸芯片和定量PCR 验证的方法来分析五株猕猴饲养层细胞的表达模式，期望发现在支持性和非支持性的饲养层细胞中差异性表达的基因。我们着重定位于饲养层胞外空间和细胞膜上的细胞因子，因为这些因子可以通过直接接触或通过膜结合受体激活下游信号通路，并最终促进猕猴胚胎干细胞的自我更新。我们发现在支持性的饲养层中有八个基因是高表达的，他们是GREM2， bFGF，KITLG，DKK3，GREM1，AREG，SERPINF1 和LTBP1； 经定量PCR 验证的SCF，bFGF 和GREM2 的表达情况都和芯片数据吻合。 2）为了描述在IVF (in vitro fertilized, 体外受精)，ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection, 单精注射)，SCNT (somatic cell nuclear transfer, 体细胞核移植)和孤雌生殖猕猴囊胚中WNT 信号通路的表达情况，我们运用了信号通路特异性PCR Array 系统及免疫细胞化学来检测mRNA 和蛋白表达水平。其中，ICSI 作为IVF 胚胎的参照组，以排除显微操作对胚胎质量的影响。结果，我们发现非经典WNT/JNK 信号，而不是经典WNT 信号通路，在IVF 正常胚胎发育中起作用。而体细胞核移植和孤雌生殖的胚胎的WNT 信号通路基因表达明显高于正常胚胎。WNT 信号通路基因的表达模式可以作为胚胎质量的一个指示标准，有助于回答为什么猕猴 SCNT 和孤雌生殖胚胎发育异常。