A comparative approach to somatic cell nuclear transfer in the rhesus monkey

BACKGROUND: Despite the potential utility of primate somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) to biomedical research and to the production of autologous embryonic stem (ES) cells for cell- or tissue-based therapy, a reliable method for SCNT is not yet availab

Reprogramming following somatic cell nuclear transfer in primates is dependent upon nuclear remodeling

BACKGROUND: Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) requires cytoplast-mediated reprogramming of the donor nucleus. Cytoplast factors such as maturation promoting factor are implicated based on their involvement in nuclear envelope breakdown (NEBD) and prema

Epigenetic marks in cloned rhesus monkey embryos: Comparison with counterparts produced in vitro

Until now, no primate animals have been successfully cloned to birth with somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) procedures, and little is known about the molecular events that occurred in the reconstructed embryos during preimplantation development. In man

Impairments in embryonic genome activation in rhesus monkey somatic cell nuclear transfer embryos

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a remarkable process in which a somatic cell nucleus is acted upon by the ooplasm via mechanisms that today remain unknown. Here we show the developmental competence (% blastocyst) of embryos derived from SCNT (21%)

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.

Identification of Differentially Expressed Genes Between Cloned and Zygote-Developing Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Embryos at the Dome Stage Using Suppression Subtractive Hybridization

Comparative analyses of differentially expressed genes between somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryos and zygote-developing (ZD) embryos are important for understanding the molecular mechanism underlying the reprogramming processes. Herein, we used the suppression subtractive hybridization approach and from more than 2900 clones identified 96 differentially expressed genes between the SCNT and ZD embryos at the dome stage in zebrafish. We report the first database of differentially expressed genes in zebrafish SCNT embryos. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that zebrafish SCNT embryos undergo significant reprogramming processes during the dome stage. However, most differentially expressed genes are down-regulated in SCNT embryos, indicating failure of reprogramming. Based on Ensembl description and Gene Ontology Consortium annotation, the problems of reprogramming at the dome stage may occur during nuclear remodeling, translation initiation, and regulation of the cell cycle. The importance of regulation from recipient oocytes in cloning should not be underestimated in zebrafish.

体细胞核移植影响因素的研究

尽管体细胞核移植(somatic cell nuclear transfer, SCNT)技术仍然处于 起步发展阶段，但是随着体细胞核移植技术在近些年来的飞速发展，人们已经得 到了多种哺乳动物体细胞核移植的存活后代。体细胞核移植技术在生物医药、农 业及其它领域的应用显示了这项技术的巨大发展前景。另一方面，人们发现体细 胞核移植效率低下并且体细胞克隆动物存在许多缺陷，这些主要是由于核移植技 术，供体细胞选择，体外培养系统以及卵母细胞的状态等的差异导致的。本研究 主要围绕着这些因素在体细胞核移植过程中对于克隆胚胎植入前后发育的影响 而开展，目的在于提高体细胞核移植的效率。 实验一，研究了几个因素对克隆胚胎发育和克隆效率的影响，为提高体细胞 核移植效率提供一些依据。这部分研究主要包括四倍体半克隆小鼠研究和蛋白酶 体抑制剂在克隆胚胎和孤雌激活胚胎发育中的影响。四倍体体细胞半克隆 （tetraploid semi-cloned , TSC）胚胎的体外发育结果表明，虽然TSC 胚胎可 能避免二倍体半克隆胚胎发育过程中的非整倍体现象，但是仍然不能形成胎儿。 另外，利用蛋白酶体抑制剂MG132 处理克隆胚胎的结果表明，虽然MG132 通过抑 制成熟促进因子（maturation promoting factors，MPF）活性的降低可以提高 克隆胚胎的体外发育率，但是没有改变克隆胚胎的质量。 实验二，研究了克隆技术在克隆胚胎构建和发育上的影响。首先，我们研究 了完整颗粒细胞注射到卵母细胞中所引起的变化。我们发现完整的颗粒细胞注入 到卵母细胞中之后很快引起细胞膜裂解和细胞核碎裂，从而导致激活后重构胚胎 的碎裂。这一实验表明完整供体细胞核注入的方法不适用于小鼠体细胞克隆。接 下来我们研究了不同的核移植技术――利用piezo 的直接注射法（piezoelectric microinjection，PEM）和电融合法（Electrofusion，EF）――对植入前后的克隆胚 胎以及出生后的克隆动物的影响。研究的结果发现，在PEM 法中，提高piezo 脉 冲的强度会导致供体细胞核DNA 断裂增加，使植入前克隆胚胎的细胞数目减少， 凋亡增加，从而降低克隆胚胎的质量。相反，在用EF 法产生的胚胎中细胞核DNA 的断裂很少，克隆胚胎质量相对较好。实验的结果表明，由于两种克隆技术利用 的原理不同，会对克隆胚胎的发育产生一定的影响，从而改变克隆的效率。 实验三，研究了猕猴体细胞克隆胚胎早期发育过程中细胞核内有丝分裂器蛋 白[Nuclear Mitotic Apparatus Protein，NuMA]的表达和分布。尽管在有些猕猴体 细胞核移植胚胎中没有检测到NuMA 的正确表达和分布并且有些胚胎出现了微 管组装异常，但是大多数猕猴体细胞核移植胚胎具有正常的NuMA 蛋白表达和 正常的核型。通过改进操作技术我们得到了可以发育到正常囊胚的猕猴体细胞核 移植胚胎。这些结果提示猕猴SCNT 胚胎发育失败的原因不是NuMA 等重要蛋 白的缺失。

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。