scholarly journals BIX-01294 increases pig cloning efficiency by improving epigenetic reprogramming of somatic cell nuclei

Reproduction ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 151 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiaojiao Huang ◽  
Hongyong Zhang ◽  
Jing Yao ◽  
Guosong Qin ◽  
Feng Wang ◽  
...  

Accumulating evidence suggests that faulty epigenetic reprogramming leads to the abnormal development of cloned embryos and results in the low success rates observed in all mammals produced through somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). The aberrant methylation status of H3K9me and H3K9me2 has been reported in cloned mouse embryos. To explore the role of H3K9me2 and H3K9me in the porcine somatic cell nuclear reprogramming, BIX-01294, known as a specific inhibitor of G9A (histone-lysine methyltransferase of H3K9), was used to treat the nuclear-transferred (NT) oocytes for 14–16 h after activation. The results showed that the developmental competence of porcine SCNT embryos was significantly enhanced bothin vitro(blastocyst rate 16.4% vs 23.2%,P<0.05) andin vivo(cloning rate 1.59% vs 2.96%) after 50 nm BIX-01294 treatment. BIX-01294 treatment significantly decreased the levels of H3K9me2 and H3K9me at the 2- and 4-cell stages, which are associated with embryo genetic activation, and increased the transcriptional expression of the pluripotency genesSOX2,NANOGandOCT4in cloned blastocysts. Furthermore, the histone acetylation levels of H3K9, H4K8 and H4K12 in cloned embryos were decreased after BIX-01294 treatment. However, co-treatment of activated NT oocytes with BIX-01294 and Scriptaid rescued donor nuclear chromatin from decreased histone acetylation of H4K8 that resulted from exposure to BIX-01294 only and consequently improved the preimplantation development of SCNT embryos (blastocyst formation rates of 23.7% vs 21.5%). These results indicated that treatment with BIX-01294 enhanced the developmental competence of porcine SCNT embryos through improvements in epigenetic reprogramming and gene expression.

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (10) ◽  
pp. 1342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhao-Bo Luo ◽  
Long Jin ◽  
Qing Guo ◽  
Jun-Xia Wang ◽  
Xiao-Xu Xing ◽  
...  

Accumulating evidence suggests that aberrant epigenetic reprogramming and low pluripotency of donor nuclei lead to abnormal development of cloned embryos and underlie the inefficiency of mammalian somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). The present study demonstrates that treatment with the small molecule RepSox alone upregulates the expression of pluripotency-related genes in porcine SCNT embryos. Treatment with the histone deacetylase inhibitor LBH589 significantly increased the blastocyst formation rate, whereas treatment with RepSox did not. Cotreatment with 12.5 μM RepSox and 50 nM LBH589 (RepSox + LBH589) for 24 h significantly increased the blastocyst formation rate compared with that of untreated embryos (26.9% vs 8.5% respectively; P < 0.05). Furthermore, the expression of pluripotency-related genes octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (NANOG) and SRY (sex determining region Y)-box 2 (SOX2) were found to significantly increased in the RepSox + LBH589 compared with control group at both the 4-cell and blastocyst stages. In particular, the expression of NANOG was 135-fold higher at the blastocyst stage in the RepSox + LBH589 group. Moreover, RepSox + LBH589 improved epigenetic reprogramming. In summary, RepSox + LBH589 increases the expression of developmentally important genes, optimises epigenetic reprogramming and improves the in vitro development of porcine SCNT embryos.


2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 189
Author(s):  
G. Wee ◽  
S.-H. Kim ◽  
K.P. Kim ◽  
S. Yeo ◽  
D.-B. Koo ◽  
...  

Histone acetylation as an important regulatory mechanism of chromatin structure preceeding zygotic gene expression in early embryo development. After fertilization, transcriptional activation of the embryo begins during the S/G2 phase of the first cell cycle. However, the precise mechanism underlying activation of zygotic transcription remains to be understood, especially in bovine nuclear transfer (NT) embryos. It is known that acetylation of histone H4 lysine 5 (H4K5) represents hyperacetylation state, which is correlated with gene expression. In this study, the acetylation of H4K5 was observed during pronuclear formation by using immunofluorescence analysis with anti-AcH4K5. Our data were analyzed by the general linear models (GLM) procedure of the SAS. In IVF embryos, acetylation of H4K5 occurred on the paternal chromatin at 8h after fertilization but did not occur on the maternal chromatin until 10h after fertilization. Reconstructed oocytes with deactylated somatic cell nuclei began to show signs of acetylation on chromatin at 3h after fusion. When acetylation intensity was calculated using an image analyzer, IVF embryos presented a higher acetylation signal than NT embryos (P&lt;0.05). To induce hyperacetylation in NT embryos, somatic cells were exposed to trichostatin A (TSA, 1μM for 60h), a specific inhibitor of histone deacetylase (HDAC), prior to NT. Acetylated signals of H4K5 increased significantly in TSA-treated cells as compared with non-treated cells (P&lt;0.05). The reconstructed embryos with TSA-treated cells showed a higher fluorescence intensity than the oocytes with non-treated cells (P&lt;0.05), but weak signals compared to IVF embryos. Thus, the results demonstrated low histone acetylation level of somatic cell nuclei after NT during the zygotic progress. Our findings suggest that developmental failures of NT embryos may be due to incomplete chromatin remodeling of somatic cell nuclei during early embryonic development.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 153
Author(s):  
A. Taweechaipaisankul ◽  
J.-X. Jin ◽  
S. Lee ◽  
G. A. Kim ◽  
B. C. Lee

The low efficiency of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) has been attributed mostly to inefficient epigenetic reprogramming. Recently, various histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) were used to improve developmental competence of SCNT embryos in several species. However, limited information is available on the effects of quisinostat (JNJ-26481585, JNJ), a second-generation HDACi with high cellular potency towards Class I and II histone deacetylases. Based on our previous study, among various concentrations, treatment with 100 nM JNJ could improve embryo development into blastocysts compared with the control (23.50 ± 1.30 v. 13.97 ± 1.37; P < 0.05). Thus, in the present study, treatment with 100 nM JNJ was used for further investigation into the relative expression of genes related to pluripotency and reprogramming in order to assess the quality of pre-implantation embryos cultured in media with JNJ using quantitative real-time PCR. Porcine fibroblasts isolated from kidney of adult pigs from passage 6 to 8 were used as nuclear donor cells for SCNT. After SCNT, embryos were cultured with or without 100 nM JNJ during the first 24 h of in vitro culture, and blastocysts from each experimental group were collected and kept at –80°C until analysis. Total RNAs were extracted, and transcribed into cDNA before amplification. Then, the relative expression of development-related (Oct4, Sox2, and Nanog), histone acetylation-related (HDAC1, HDAC2, and HDAC3) and DNA methylation-related (DNMT1, DNMT3a, and DNMT3b) genes between the control and 100 nM JNJ groups were compared. All experiments were repeated 4 times and results were analysed by independent t-test using SPSS 17.0K (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Treatment with 100 nM JNJ showed significant increases in the expression Oct4, Sox2, and Nanog compared with the control (P < 0.05). Moreover, there was significantly lower expression of HDAC1, HDAC2, HDAC3, DNMT1, DNMT3a, and DNMT3b in the 100 nM JNJ treatment than in the control (P < 0.05). These expression results moderately illustrated more active transcriptional factors, stable maintenance of embryonic pluripotency, and lesser activity of histone acetylation and DNA methylation enzymes, enhancing the blastocyst formation rate in the treatment group. In conclusion, we suggest that improvement of the in vitro developmental competence of porcine SCNT embryos might be related to positive regulations of JNJ on the expression levels of genes related to pluripotency and reprogramming. This study was supported by the NRF (#2015R1C1A2A01054373; 2016M3A9B6903410), Research Institute for Veterinary Science and the BK21 PLUS Program.


2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 141 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.C. Gomez ◽  
C.E. Pope ◽  
A.M. Giraldo ◽  
L. Lyons ◽  
R.F. Harris ◽  
...  

The African wild cat (AWC, Felis silvestris lybica; 2n=38) is one of the smallest wildcats, and it’s future is threatened by hybridization with domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus; 2n=38). Nuclear transfer (NT) is a potentially valuable tool for retaining genetic variability, and could assist in the continuation of species with few remaining individuals. Inter-species nuclear transfer into domestic cat (DSH) supports development of somatic cell nuclei from AWC (Gomez et al., 2003, Biol Reprod 69, 1032–1041). Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the in vivo developmental competence of nuclear transfer embryos derived by fusion of African wildcat fibroblasts with domestic cat cytoplasts, after transfer into domestic cat recipients. In vivo- and in vitro-matured domestic cat oocytes were mechanically enucleated in modified Tyrodes salt solution supplemented with 20μgmL−1 of cytochalasin B (CCB) and 2mgmL−1 of sucrose, and reconstructed with AWC fibroblast cells derived from an adult male; cultured and passaged 1 to 3 times before serum-starved with DMEM +0.5% FBS and cultured for 5 additional days before use. Fusion took place in fusion medium (0.3M mannitol and 0.1mMMg+2), and membrane fusion was induced by applying a 3s AC pre-pulse of 20V, 1MHz; followed by two 30μs DC pulses of 240V/mm at intervals of 0.5s. Fused couplets were activated 2–3h after fusion by placing the couplets between two electrodes in a fusion chamber containing 3mL of fusion medium and exposing them to two 60μs DC pulses of 120V/mm. Then, couplets were incubated in 30μL drops of Tyrodes solution containing 1% MEM nonessential amino acids, 3mgmL−1 BSA (IVC-1 medium), and supplemented with 10μgmL−1 cycloheximide and 5μgmL−1 CCB at 38°C in 5% CO2 for 4h. After activation, cloned embryos were cultured in 500μL of IVC-1 medium until the day of the transfer. Derived AWC NT embryos were transferred into the oviducts (Day 1) or uteri (Days 5, 6, 7) of 36 gonadotrophin-treated DSH recipients on Day 1 after ovulation or on Days 5, 6, or 7 after oocyte aspiration, respectively. Pregnancy was assessed by ultrasonography on Days 21 to 23. One domestic cat was still pregnant and ongoing on Day 60. Kittens were delivered by Cesarean section in each of the seven pregnant recipients on days 61 to 67 of gestation. The kittens weighed an average of 86.2g (50.0 to 103g) and died within 36h after delivery. The post-mortem pathology reports revealed that most of them had an immature respiratory system. The clonal status of the kittens was assessed by multiplex PCR amplification of 20 microsatellite markers, including seven markers that are known to be on the X chromosome. Results from these assays confirmed that the AWC kittens had originated from the AWC donor somatic cell line and were not related to the DSH recipient cats. In summary, these results indicate that AWC cloned kittens can be produced by ET of embryos derived from AWC cells into DSH cytoplasts. Research was funded partially by the John &amp; Shirley Davies Foundation. Table 1


1995 ◽  
Vol 108 (6) ◽  
pp. 2187-2196 ◽  
Author(s):  
L.J. Wangh ◽  
D. DeGrace ◽  
J.A. Sanchez ◽  
A. Gold ◽  
Y. Yeghiazarians ◽  
...  

Rapid genome replication is one of the hallmarks of the frog embryonic cell cycle. We report here that complete reactivation of quiescent somatic cell nuclei in Xenopus egg extracts depends on prior restructuring of the nuclear substrate and prior preparation of cytoplasmic extract with the highest capacity to initiate and sustain DNA synthesis. Nuclei from mature erythrocytes swell, replicate their DNA efficiently, and enter mitosis in frozen/thawed extracts prepared from activated Xenopus eggs, provided the nuclei are first treated with trypsin, heparin, and an extract prepared from unactivated, meiotically arrested, eggs. Optimal replicating extracts are prepared from large batches of unfertilized eggs that are synchronously activated into the cell cycle for 28 minutes (at 20 degrees C). Because the Xenopus cell cycle progresses so rapidly, extracts prepared just a few minutes before or after this time have substantially lower DNA synthetic capacities. At the optimal time and temperature, eggs have just reached the G1/S boundary of the first cell cycle. This fact was revealed by injecting and replicating an SV40 plasmid in intact unfertilized eggs as described previously. We estimate that under optimal conditions approximately 6.14 × 10(9) base pairs of DNA/per nucleus are synthesized in 30–40 minutes, a rate that rivals that observed in the zygotic nucleus. The findings reported here are one step in our long term effort to develop a new in vitro/in vivo approach to nuclear transplantation. Nuclear transplantation in amphibian embryos has been used to establish that the genomes of many types of differentiated somatic cells are pluripotent. But very few such nuclei have ever developed into advanced tadpoles or adult frogs, probably because somatic nuclei injected directly into activated eggs fail to reactivate quickly enough to avoid being damaged during first mitosis. We have already shown that unfertilized eggs can be injected prior to activation of the first cell cycle. Future experiments will reveal whether in vitro reactivated somatic cell nuclei transplanted into such eggs reliably reach advanced stages of development.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuang Liang ◽  
Zheng-Wen Nie ◽  
Jing Guo ◽  
Ying-Jie Niu ◽  
Kyung-Tae Shin ◽  
...  

AbstractMicroRNA (miR)-29b plays a crucial role during somatic cell reprogramming. The aim of the current study was to explore the effects of miR-29b on the developmental competence of bovine somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryos, as well as the underlying mechanisms of action. The expression level of miR-29b was lower in bovine SCNT embryos at the pronuclear, 8-cell, and blastocyst stages compared within vitrofertilized embryos. In addition, miR-29b regulates the expression of DNA methyltransferases (Dnmt3a/3bandDnmt1) in bovine SCNT embryos. We further investigated SCNT embryo developmental competence and found that miR-29b overexpression during bovine SCNT embryonic development does not improve developmental potency and downregulation inhibits developmental potency. Nevertheless, the quality of bovine SCNT embryos at the blastocyst stage improved significantly. The expression of pluripotency factors and cellular proliferation were significantly higher in blastocysts from the miR-29b overexpression group than the control and downregulation groups. In addition, outgrowth potential in blastocysts after miR-29b overexpression was also significantly greater in the miR-29b overexpression group than in the control and downregulation groups. Taken together, these results demonstrated that miR-29b plays an important role in bovine SCNT embryo development.


2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 139 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Mitalipov ◽  
Q. Zhou ◽  
J. Byrne ◽  
W.-Z. Ji ◽  
D. Wolf

Successful reprogramming of somatic cell nuclei after nuclear transfer requires active remodeling by factors present in the nonactivated cytoplast. High levels of maturation promoting factor (MPF) activity are associated with this remodeling process which includes nuclear envelope breakdown (NEBD), premature chromosome condensation (PCC), and spindle formation. In this study, we examined the extent of nuclear remodeling in monkey somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryos by monitoring the dynamics of lamin A/C appearance, as detected immunocytochemically, following fusion of donor cells with recipient cytoplasts. In the control, intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) fertilized embryos, lamin A/C was readily detected at the pronuclear stage but disappeared in early cleaving embryos only to reappear by the morula stage in association with the activation of the embryonic genome. We initially documented lack or incomplete NEBD and PCC in SCNT embryos in the form of retention of lamin A/C signal emanating from the donor nucleus. This observation was consistent with premature cytoplast activation due to the manipulation procedures. SCNT embryos produced by this approach typically arrested at the morula stage. Significant modifications in nuclear transfer protocols were then employed. Optimization of procedures resulted in robust NEBD and PCC, as indicated by loss of lamin A/C signal from the donor cell. Also, significant improvement of SCNT embryo development in vitro was observed, with a markedly improved blastocyst formation rate (21%). Several different fetal and adult somatic cell types screened as nuclear donors supported blastocyst development. SCNT blastocysts displayed a pattern of Oct-4 expression similar to that of sperm fertilized counterparts, indicative of efficient nuclear reprogramming. However, no pregnancies were established following a preliminary trial of 8 embryo transfers with 48 cloned embryos. Nevertheless, our results represent a breakthrough in efforts to produce cloned monkeys and should provide the resources required for the derivation of embryonic stem cells from SCNT blastocysts.


2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 133 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. K. Kong ◽  
H. S. Lee ◽  
N. H. Kim ◽  
L. H. Kim ◽  
H. D. Shin ◽  
...  

The leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis), a member of the felidae family, is currently listed as threatened by the Ministry of Environment in South Korea. In exotic or endangered species, the lack of oocytes and recipients precludes the use of traditional somatic cell nuclear transfer (NT), and an approach such as intragenus NT may be the only alternative for producing embryos and offspring. In the present study, we used the leopard cat (LC) as a somatic cell donor to evaluate the in vivo developmental competence, after transfer into domestic cat recipients, of cloned embryos produced by the fusion of LC fibroblast cell nuclei with domestic cat cytoplasts. A total of 412 enucleated domestic cat oocytes were reconstructed with either male (Treatment A) or female (Treatment B) adult LC fibroblasts. There was no significant difference in fusion rate (60.4 vs. 56.9%) between Treatment A and B. Of the fused couplets, the cleavage and blastocyst developmental rate in Treatment A were greater than those in Treatment B (69.5 vs. 60.9%; 8.3 vs. 7.8%; P < 0.05). In treatment A, in vivo developmental studies at 30-45 days postimplantation demonstrated 4.8% (21/435) of reconstructed embryos (n = 435) had entered into the uterine lining of recipients, but only 1.4% (6/435) formed fetuses. However, all of the reconstructed embryos failed to develop to term (65 days). Microsatellite analyses confirmed that the nuclear genome of the cloned fetuses were LC in origin.


2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
J. G. Zhao ◽  
J. W. Ross ◽  
Y. H. Hao ◽  
D. M. Wax ◽  
L. D. Spate ◽  
...  

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a promising technology with potential applications in both agriculture and regenerative medicine. The reprogramming of differentiated somatic nuclei into totipotent embryonic state following NT is not efficient and the mechanism is currently unknown. However, accumulating evidence suggests that faulty epigenetic reprogramming is likely to be the major cause of low success rates observed in all mammals produced through SCNT. It has been demonstrated that increased histone acetylation in reconstructed embryos by applying histone deacetylases inhibitor (HDACi) such as trychostatin A (TSA) significantly enhanced the developmental competence in several species in vitro and in vivo. However TSA has been known to be teratogenic. Compared with TSA, Scriptaid is a low toxic but more efficient HDACi (Su GH et al. 2000 Cancer Res. 60, 3137–3142). The objectives of this study were: 1) to investigate and optimize the application Scriptaid to the NT using Landrace fetal fibroblast cells (FFCs) as donor; 2) investigate the effect of increased histone acetylation on the developmental competence of reconstructed embryos from NIH mini inbred FFCs in vitro and in vivo. The reconstructed embryos were treated with Scriptaid at different concentrations (0 nm, 250 nm, 500 nm and 1000 nm) after activation for 14 to 16 h. IVF embryos without treatment were produced as an additional control. Developmental rates to the 2-cell and blastocyst stage were determined. Developmental potential was determined by transferring Day 1 NT zygotes to the oviducts of surrogates on the day of, or one day after, the onset of estrus. Experiments were repeated at least 3 times and data were analyzed with chi-square tests using SAS 6.12 program (SAS institute, Inc., Cary, NC, USA). The percentage blastocyst of cloned embryos using Landrace FFCs as donors treated with 500 nm Scriptaid was the highest and was significantly higher than untreated group (25% v. 11%, P < 0.05). Percent cleaved was not different among four treatment groups. We used 500 nm Scriptaid for 14 to 16 h after activation for all subsequent experiments. Developmental rate to the blastocyst stage was significantly increased in cloned embryos derived from NIH mini inbred FFCs after treating with Scriptaid (21% v. 9%, P < 0.05), while the blastocyst rate in IVF group was 30%. Embryo transfer (ET) results showed that 5/6 (Transferred embryos No. were 190, 109, 154, 174, 152, and 190, respectively) surrogates (83%) became pregnant resulting in 2 healthy piglets from 2 litters (recipients received 190 and 154 embryos, respectively) in the Scriptaid treatment group, while no pregnancies were obtained in the untreated group from 5 ET (Embryos transferred No. are 140, 163, 161, 151 and 151, respectively). These results suggest that 500 nm Scriptaid treatment following activation increase both the in vitro and in vivo development of porcine SCNT embryos from NIH mini inbred FFCs and the hyperacetylation might actually improve reprogramming of the somatic nuclei after NT. Funding from the National Institutes of Health National Center for Research Resources RR018877.


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