• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2010

Human fibroblasts that maintain the structural integrity of connective tissues by secreting precursors of the extracellular matrix are typically cultured with serum. However, there are potential disadvantages of the use of serum including unnatural interactions between the cells and the potential for exposure to animal pathogens. To prevent the possible influence of serum on fibroblast cultures, we devised a serum-free growth method and present in vitro data that demonstrate its suitability for growing porcine fetal fibroblasts. These cells were grown under four different culture conditions: no serum (negative control), 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS, positive control), 10% knockout serum replacement (KSR) and 20% KSR in the medium. The proliferation rates and viabilities of the cells were investigated by counting the number of cells and trypan blue staining, respectively. The 10% FBS group showed the largest increase in the total number of cells ($1.09\;{\times}\;10^5\;cells/ml$). In terms of the rate of viable cells, the results from the KSR supplementation groups (20% KSR:64.7%; 10% KSR: 80.6%) were similar to those from the 10% FBS group (68.5%). Moreover, supplementation with either 10% ($3.0\;{\times}\;10^4\;cells/ml$) or 20% KSR ($4.8\;{\times}\;10^4\;cells/ml$) produced similar cell growth rates. In conclusion, although KSR supplementation produces a lower cell proliferation rate than FBS, this growth condition is more effective for obtaining an appropriate number of viable porcine fetal fibroblasts in culture. Using KSR in fibroblast culture medium is thus a viable alternative to FBS.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.107-112
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• 2005

A high environmental temperature affects the economic performance of pigs. Heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) has been reported to participate importantly in thermotolerance. This study aims to produce transgenic pigs overexpressing porcine HSP70.2, the highly inducible one of HSP70 members, and to prove the cellular thermotolerance in the primary fibroblasts from the transgenics. A recombinant plasmid in which the sequence that encodes the porcine HSP70.2 gene is fused to green fluorescence protein (GFP) was constructed under the control of cytomegalovirus (CMV) enhancer and promoter. Two transgenic pigs were produced by microinjecting pCMV-HSP70-GFP DNA into the pronucleus of fertilized eggs. Immunoblot assay revealed the varied overexpression level (6.4% and 1.4%) of HSP70-GFP in transgenic pigs. After heating at $45^{\circ}C$ for 3 h, the survival rate (78.1%) of the primary fibroblast cells from the highly expressing transgenic pig exceeded that from the non-transgenic pig (62.9%). This result showed that primary fibroblasts overexpressing HSP70-GFP confer cell thermotolerance. We suggest that transgenic pigs overexpressing HSP70 might improve their thermotolerance in summer and therefore reduce the economic loss in animal production.

• 대한생식의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1999.11a
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• pp.37.1-37.1
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• 1999

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.33 no.10
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• pp.1674-1682
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• 2020

Objective: This study aimed to elucidate the effect of miR-140 on the proliferation of porcine fetal fibroblasts (PFFs) and identify the target genes of miR-140 in PFFs. Methods: In this study, bioinformatics software was used to predict and verify target genes of miR-140. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot were used to detect the relationship between miR-140 and its target genes in PFFs. Dual luciferase reporter gene assays were performed to assess the interactions among miR-140, type 1 insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF1R), and SRY-box 4 (SOX4). The effect of miR-140 on the proliferation of PFFs was measured by CCK-8 when PFFs were transfected with a miR-140 mimic or inhibitor. The transcription factor SOX4 binding to promoter of IGF1R was detected by chromatin immunoprecipitation assay (ChIP). Results: miR-140 directly targeted IGF1R and inhibited proliferation of PFFs. Meanwhile, miR-140 targeted transcription factor SOX4 that binds to promoter of porcine IGF1R to indirectly inhibit the expression of IGF1R. In addition, miR-140 inhibitor promoted PFFs proliferation, which is abrogated by SOX4 or IGF1R knockdown. Conclusion: miR-140 inhibited PFFs proliferation by directly targeting IGF1R and indirectly inhibiting IGF1R expression via SOX4, which play an important role in the development of porcine fetal.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.711-717
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• 2007

In this study, two cell types from porcine females, namely fetal fibroblasts (pFFs) and adult ear fibroblasts (pAEFs) and two passages (3-4 and 7-8) were investigated by evaluating the development rate, blastocyst cell number and the incidence of apoptosis. No significant differences were observed in the cleavage rates of cloned and IVF embryos. The blastocyst rates between the embryos cloned with pFFs ($15.1{\pm}3.2$) and pAEFs ($10.4{\pm}2.6$) did not differ significantly but was significantly (p<0.05) lower in pAEFs than that in IVF ($22.5{\pm}4.5$) embryos. Total cell number in pFFs ($28.4{\pm}4.3$) and pAEFs cloned blastocysts ($24.2{\pm}5.1$) was significantly (p<0.05) lesser than IVF control ($35.4{\pm}3.2$). Apoptosis rates between cloned blastocysts differed significantly (p<0.05) and were significantly (p<0.05) higher than IVF embryos. The blastocyst rates between the cloned embryos cloned with different cell passages did not differ significantly but in embryos cloned with 7-8 cell passage was significantly (p<0.05) lower than the IVF control. Apoptosis signals were detected in IVF and cloned embryos as early as day 3 and the rates of apoptosis increased concurrently with the embryo development. In conclusion, high apoptosis during in vitro preimplantation development resulted in low development rate and total cell number of cloned embryos. Moreover, based on the apoptotic incidence in cloned blastocysts, fetal fibroblasts are more suitable for production of cloned embryos in porcine.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.289-295
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• 2013

Xenotransplantation of pig organs into primates results in fatal damage, referred as hyperacute rejection (HAR), and acute humoral xenograft rejection (AHXR), to the organ graft mediated by antibodies pre-existing and newly-producing in primates against their cognate pig antigens. Functional ablation of ${\alpha}1$,3-galactosyltransferase (Gal-T KO) of pig which is an enzyme involved in synthesis of Gala1-3Galb1-4GlcNAc-R antigen is essentially required to prevent HAR. Moreover, additional genetic modification under Gal-T KO background for enforced expression of human complement regulatory proteins which can inhibits complement activation is known to effectively imped HAR and AHXR. In this study, we constructed a membrane cofactor protein (MCP) expression cassette under control of human $EF1{\alpha}$ promoter. This cassette was inserted between homologous recombination regions corresponding to Gal-T locus. Subsequently this vector was introduced into ear skin fibroblasts of female pig by nucleofection. We were able to obtained 40 clones by neomycin selection and 4 clones among them were identified as clones targeted into Gal-T locus of MCP expression cassette by long-range PCR. Real time RT-PCR was shown to down-regulation of Gal-T expression. From these results, we demonstrated human $EF1{\alpha}$ promoter could induce efficient expression of MCP on cell surface of fibroblasts of female pig.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.564-570
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• 2016

The Sal-like 1 gene (Sall1) is essential for kidney development, and mutations in this gene result in abnormalities in the kidneys. Mice lacking Sall1 show agenesis or severe dysgenesis of the kidneys. In a recent study, blastocyst complementation was used to develop mice and pigs with exogenic organs. In the present study, transcription activator-like effector nuclease (TALEN)-mediated homologous recombination was used to produce Sall1-knockout porcine fibroblasts for developing knockout pigs. The vector targeting the Sall1 locus included a 5.5-kb 5' arm, 1.8-kb 3' arm, and a neomycin resistance gene as a positive selection marker. The knockout vector and TALEN were introduced into porcine fibroblasts by electroporation. Antibiotic selection was performed over 11 days by using $300{\mu}g/mL$ G418. DNA of cells from G418-resistant colonies was amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to confirm the presence of fragments corresponding to the 3' and 5' arms of Sall1. Further, mono- and bi-allelic knockout cells were isolated and analyzed using PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism. The results of our study indicated that TALEN-mediated homologous recombination induced bi-allelic knockout of the endogenous gene.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.79-84
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• 2014

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are approximately 22 nucleotides of small noncoding RNAs that control gene expression at the posttranscriptional level through translational inhibition and destabilization of their target mRNAs. The miRNAs are phylogenetically conserved and have been shown to be instrumental in a wide variety of key biological processes including cell cycle regulation, apoptosis, metabolism, imprinting, and differentiation. Recently, a paper has shown that expression of the miRNA-302/367 cluster expressed abundantly in mouse and human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) can directly reprogram mouse and human somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) efficiently in the absence of any of the four factors, Oct4, Sox2, c-Myc, and Klf4. To apply this efficient method to porcine, we analyzed porcine genomic sequence containing predicted porcine miRNA-302/367 cluster through ENSEMBL database, generated a non-replicative episomal vector system including miRNA-302/367 cluster originated from porcine embryonic fibroblasts (PEF), and tried to make porcine iPSCs by transfection of the miRNA-302/367 cluster. Colonies expressing EGFP and forming compact shape were found, but they were not established as iPSC lines. Our data in this study show that pig miRNA-302/367 cluster could not satisfy requirement of PEF reprogramming conditions for pluripotency. To make pig iPSC lines by miRNA, further studies on the role of miRNAs in pluripotency and new trials of transfection with conventional reprogramming factors are needed.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.113-119
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• 2012

Epigenetic modification including genome-wide DNA demethylation is essential for normal embryonic development. Insufficient demethylation of somatic cell genome may cause various anomalies and prenatal loss in the development of nuclear transfer embryos. Hence, the source of nuclear donor often affects later development of nuclear transfer (NT) embryos. In this study, appropriateness of porcine embryonic germ (EG) cells as karyoplasts for NT with respect to epigenetic modification was investigated. These cells follow methylation status of primordial germ cells from which they originated, so that they may contain less methylated genome than somatic cells. This may be advantageous to the development of NT embryos commonly known to be highly methylated. The rates of blastocyst development were similar among embryos from EG cell nuclear transfer (EGCNT), somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) (16/62, 25.8% vs. 56/274, 20.4% vs. 16/74, 21.6%). Genomic DNA samples from EG cells (n=3), fetal fibroblasts (n=4) and blastocysts from EGCNT (n=8), SCNT (n=14) and ICSI (n=6) were isolated and treated with sodium bisulfite. The satellite region (GenBank Z75640) that involves nine selected CpG sites was amplified by PCR, and the rates of DNA methylation in each site were measured by pyrosequencing technique. The average methylation degrees of CpG sites in EG cells, fetal fibroblasts and blastocysts from EGCNT, SCNT and ICSI were 17.9, 37.7, 4.1, 9.8 and 8.9%, respectively. The genome of porcine EG cells were less methylated than that of somatic cells (p<0.05), and DNA demethylation occurred in embryos from both EGCNT (p<0.05) and SCNT (p<0.01). Interestingly, the degree of DNA methylation in EGCNT embryos was approximately one half of SCNT (p<0.01) and ICSI (p<0.05) embryos, while SCNT and ICSI embryos contained demethylated genome with similar degrees. The present study demonstrates that porcine EG cell nuclear transfer resulted in hypomethylation of DNA in cloned embryos yet leading normal preimplantation development. Further studies are needed to investigate whether such modification affects long-term survival of cloned embryos.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.1644-1651
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• 2014

Transgenic animals have become important tools for the production of therapeutic proteins in the domestic animal. Production efficiencies of transgenic animals by conventional methods as microinjection and retrovirus vector methods are low, and the foreign gene expression levels are also low because of their random integration in the host genome. In this study, we investigated the homologous recombination on the porcine ${\beta}$-casein gene locus using a knock-in vector for the ${\beta}$-casein gene locus. We developed the knock-in vector on the porcine ${\beta}$-casein gene locus and isolated knock-in fibroblast for nuclear transfer. The knock-in vector consisted of the neomycin resistance gene (neo) as a positive selectable marker gene, diphtheria toxin-A gene as negative selection marker, and 5' arm and 3' arm from the porcine ${\beta}$-casein gene. The secretion of enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) was more easily detected in the cell culture media than it was by western blot analysis of cell extract of the HC11 mouse mammary epithelial cells transfected with EGFP knock-in vector. These results indicated that a knock-in system using ${\beta}$-casein gene induced high expression of transgene by the gene regulatory sequence of endogenous ${\beta}$-casein gene. These fibroblasts may be used to produce transgenic pigs for the production of therapeutic proteins via the mammary glands.