• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.194-200
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• 2009

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of donor cell passage, size and type on the development of nuclear transfer embryos. Porcine cumulus cells, fetal fibroblasts and oviductal epithelial cells from 1-2, 3-6 and 7-10 passages were used for the nuclear transfer. In the oocytes with the cumulus donor cells, fusion and cleavage rates of oocytes and cell numbers per blastocyst among the three different passage groups did not show any differences, but the rates of blastocyst formation from 1-2 and 3-6 passage groups were higher than those from 7-10 passage group. The rates of fusion, cleavage and blastocyst formation, and the cell numbers per blastocyst were higher in the embryos with the sizes of <20 and 20 ${\mu}m$ cumulus donor cells compared to the >20 ${\mu}m$ cumulus donor cell. In the oocytes with the fetal fibroblast donor cells, the rate of blastocyst formation from the 3-6 passage group was higher than from 1-2 and 7-10 passage groups. The embryos with the size of 20 $\mu{m}$ fetal fibroblast donor cell showed higher rate of blastocyst formation compared to those with <20 and >20 ${\mu}m$ donor cells. In the oocytes with the oviductal epithelial cells, the rates of blastocyst formation from 1-2 and 3-6 passage groups were higher compared to those from 7-10 passage group. The embryos with the sizes of <20 and 20 ${\mu}m$ oviductal epithelial donor cells had a higher rate of blastocyst formation compared to those with >20 ${\mu}m$ donor cell. Fusion and cleavage rates of oocytes, and cell numbers per blastocyst among the three different donor cell types from the 3-6 passage did not show any differences. However, the rate of blastocyst formation of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryos with the fetal fibroblast donor cell was higher than that of blastocyst formation of SCNT embryos with the cumulus and oviductal epithelial donor cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Developmental Biology Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.92-92
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• 2003

Accurate analysis of nuclear status is needed when biopsied-blastomeres are used for embryo sexing. In this study, the nuclear status of blastomeres derived from 8- to 16-cell stage IVF bovine embryos was analyzed to evaluate the representative of single blastomere for embryo sexing. When 55 embryos were analyzed by PCR following biopsy, the coincident rate of sex determination between biopsied-single blastomere and matched blastocyst by PCR was 80 %. Karyotyping of biastomeres in 8- 16-cell stage bovine embryos was conducted to assess chromosome status of IVF embryos. To establish karyotyping of blastomeres, concentrations of vinblastine sulfate and duration of exposure time for metaphase plate induction with 8- to 16-cell stage bovine embryos were tested. The most effective condition for induction of metaphase plate (>45%) was 1.0 ug/ml vinblastine sulfate treatment for 15 h. In 22 embryos under the condition, only 8 embryos out of ten that had a normal diploid chromosome complement showed a sex-chromosomal composition of XX or XY (36.4%) and 2 diploid embryos showed mosaicism of the opposite sex of XX and XY in blastomeres of embryo (9.1%). One haploid embryo contained only one X-chromosome (4.5%). Four out of the other 11 embryos having a mixoploid chromosomal complement contained haploid blastomere with wrong sex chromosome (18.2%). These results suggested that morphologically normal bovine embryos derived from IVF had considerable proportion of mixoploid and sex-chromosomal mosaicism which could be the cause of discrepancies of the sex between biopsied-single blastomere and matched blastocyst by PCR analysis.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.806-813
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• 2010

Animal bioreactors have been regarded as alternative tools for the production of limited human therapeutic proteins. The mammary glands of cattle are optimal tissues to produce therapeutic proteins that cannot be produced in large amounts in traditional systems based on microorganisms and eukaryotic cells. In this study, two knock-in vectors, pBCTPOKI-6 and pBCTPOKI-10, which target the hTPO gene on the bovine beta-casein locus, were designed to develop cloned transgenic cattle. The pBCTPOKI-6 and pBCTPOKI-10 vectors expressed hTPO protein in culture medium at a concentration of 774 pg/ml and 1,867 pg/ml, respectively. Successfully, two targeted cell clones were obtained from the bovine fibroblasts transfected with the pBCTPOKI-6 vector. Cloned embryos reconstructed with the targeted nuclei showed a lower in vitro developmental competence than those with the wild-type nuclei. After transfer of the cloned embryos into recipients, 7 pregnancies were detected at 40 to 60 days of gestation, but failed to develop to term. The results are the first trial for targeting of a human gene on the bovine milk protein gene locus, providing the potential for a large-scale production of therapeutic proteins in the animal bioreactor system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Developmental Biology Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.84-85
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Developmental Biology Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.113-113
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Embryo Transfer Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.84-85
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Embryo Transfer Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.113-113
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• 2005

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.324-329
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• 2014

To facilitate the construction of genetically-modified pigs, we produced cloned embryos derived from porcine fibroblasts transfected with a pair of engineered zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) plasmids to create targeted mutations and enriched using a reporter plasmid system. The reporter expresses RFP and eGFP simultaneously when ZFN-mediated site-specific mutations occur. Thus, double positive cells ($RFP^+/eGFP^+$) were selected and used for somatic cell nuclear transfer. Two types of reporter based enrichment systems were used in this study; the cloned embryos derived from cells enriched using a magnetic sorting-based system showed better developmental competence than did those derived from cells enriched by flow cytometry. Mutated sequences, such as insertions, deletions, or substitutions, together with the wild-type sequence, were found in the cloned porcine blastocysts. Therefore, genetic mutations can be achieved in cloned porcine embryos reconstructed with ZFN-treated cells that were enriched by a reporter-based system.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.26 no.9
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• pp.1255-1261
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• 2013

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a useful tool for animal cloning, but the efficiency of producing viable offspring by SCNT is very low. To improve this efficiency in the production of cloned pigs, it is critical to understand the interactions between uterine function and cloned embryos during implantation. Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a lipid mediator that plays an important role in the establishment of pregnancy in pigs; however, LPA production in the uterine endometrium of pigs carrying SCNT-cloned conceptuses has not been determined. Therefore, we investigated expression of ENPP2, an LPA-generating enzyme, in the uterine endometrium of gilts with conceptuses derived from SCNT during the implantation period. Uterine endometrial tissue and uterine flushing were obtained from gilts carrying SCNT-derived conceptuses and from gilts carrying conceptuses resulting from natural mating on d 12 of pregnancy. Our results demonstrated no difference in the level of ENPP2 mRNA expression in the uterine endometrium between gilts carrying SCNT-derived conceptuses and gilts carrying naturally-conceived conceptuses, but secretion of ENPP2 protein into the uterine lumen did decrease significantly in pigs with SCNT-derived conceptuses. These results indicate that expression and secretion of ENPP2, which are critical for appropriate LPA production and successful pregnancy, are dysregulated in the uterine endometrium of pigs carrying SCNT-derived conceptuses.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.377-384
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• 2002

To investigate the expression patterns of proteins and growth factor signals in differentiated rabbit embryonic stem (ES) cells, ES cells with confluent stage grown of feeder layer and differentiated cells into embryoid bodies (EB) without feeder cell were applied to protein gel and Western blotting analysis. There were 66kDa and 28kDa specifically expressed in differentiated ES cell but not in undifferentiated ES cell while 25kDa protein band showed up in only undifferentiated ES cells. Also there were some difference of protein bands in several area of gel between differentiated and undifferentiated ES cells such as about 100 kDa, 50kDa and 27kDa areas, but there was no difference in band pattern of one-dimensional gel analysis between mouse ES cells and rabbit ES cells. IGF-I receptor and EGF receptor were expressed in differentiated cells and undifferentiated cells. And ICF-I and EGF were not expressed in both differentiated and undifferentiated cells. These results indicated that ES cells express their own proteins to inhibit differentiation while EB cells synthesize different proteins to differentiate, and 16F-I receptor and EGF receptor were expressed in both ES and EB cells probably for the different functions.