Abstract
Background: The ingredients of embryo culture media developed by different companies are disclosed. Thus, it is impossible to determine which ingredients might be responsible for differences in pre-and post-implantation embryo development. To address this gap, we performed an experiment to compare two embryo culture media, namely, SOF and commercial BO, on pre- and post-implantation development of cloned Sannen goat embryos. Cumulus oocyte complexes derived from slaughterhouse ovaries were used for in vitro embryo production . In vitro development of IVF, parthenogenetic and SCNT embryos were assessed in both BO and SOF media. The expression of 16 genes, including AKT , OCT4 , SOX2 , BMPR1 , FGFR4 , CDC25 , CDX2 , GCN5 , PCAF , FOXD3 , SMAD5 , FZD , LIFR1 , CTNNB , ERK1 , and IFNT , belonging to 7 important pathways, i.e. pluripotency, FGF, TGFβ, cell cycle and proliferation, histone transferase, trophectoderm, and WNT, were examined in the goat SCNT and IVF blastocysts from both BO and SOF media. Results: The blastocyst rate in BO medium was significantly higher than that of the SOF medium in SCNT embryos ( P < 0.05). All of the genes examined showed increased expression levels in SCNT embryos compared to IVF embryos. In the IVF group, OCT4 , BMPR1 , and GCN5 showed significantly higher expression in the SOF medium compared to the BO medium. In this group, AKT , FGFR4 , SOX2 showed significantly lower expression in the SOF medium compared to the BO medium. In the SCNT group, FGFR4 , GCN5 , FZD , CTNNB , BMPR1 , and FGFR4 showed significantly higher expression in SOF medium compared to BO medium. In vivo development did not differ significantly between the two groups. Conclusions: Based on these results, we concluded that the limited information available on the allocations of ICM and TE cells in SCNT embryos and embryo-specific gene expression may be the major drawback IVC medium and an impediment to successful animal cloning.
Animal cloning experiments still banned in Italy