Assessements of Apoptosis in Bovine Embryos Reconstructed with Fetal Fibroblast

Mainly due to deficiencies in nuclear reprogramming, gene expression and DNA fragmentation, which result in early and late embryonic losses, the overall success rate achieved by cloning techniques to date is low. This present study compared the incidences of DNA fragmentation during development of IVF, parthenotes (PT), nuclear transfer (NT) and transgenic (TG) embryos. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) nick-end labelling (TUNEL) with propidium iodide counter staining was used for determination of DNA fragmentation and total number, respectively. TG and NT donor cells were fetal fibroblasts with or without transfection with EGFP, and cultured in DMEM+15% FCS until confluent, for 5 days. At 19 h post-maturation (hpm), enucleated oocytes were reconstructed with donor cells and activated at 24 hpm with the combinations of ionomycin (5 M, 5 min) and cyclo-heximide (10 g/ml, 5 h) after electric fusion by a single DC pulse (1.6 KV/cm, 60 sec). Parthenotes were produced by the same activation protocol at 24 hpm. (중략)