Full-term development of rat after transfer of nuclei from two-cell stage embryos

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Item Type:	Article
Title:	Full-term development of rat after transfer of nuclei from two-cell stage embryos
Creators Name:	Popova, E., Bader, M. and Krivokharchenko, A.
Abstract:	Cloning technology would allow targeted genetic alterations in the rat, a species which is yet unaccessible for such studies due to the lack of germ-line competent embryonic stem cells. The present study was performed to examine the developmental ability of reconstructed rat embryos after transfer of nuclei from early preimplantation stages. We observed that single blastomeres from 2-cell embryos and zygotes reconstructed by pronuclei exchange can develop in vitro until morula/blastocyst stage. When karyoplasts from blastomeres were used for the reconstruction of embryos, highest in vitro cleavage rates were obtained with nuclei in an early phase of the cell cycle transferred into enucleated preactivated oocytes or zygotes. However, further in vitro development of reconstructed embryos produced from blastomere nuclei was arrested at early cleavage stages under all conditions tested in this study. In contrast, immediate transfer to foster mothers of reconstructed embryos with nuclei from 2-cell embryos at an early stage of the cell cycle in preactivated enucleated oocytes resulted in live newborn rats with a general efficiency of 0.4-2.2 %. The genetic origin of the cloned offspring was verified by using donor nuclei from embryos of Black Hooded Wistar rats and transgenic rats carrying an ubiquitously expressed green fluorescent protein transgene. Thus, we report for the first time the production of live cloned rats using nuclei from 2-cell embryos.
Keywords:	Embryo, Oocyte Development, Animals, Rats
Source:	Biology of Reproduction
ISSN:	0006-3363
Publisher:	Society for the Study of Reproduction
Volume:	75
Number:	4
Page Range:	524-530
Date:	October 2006
Official Publication:	https://doi.org/10.1095/biolreprod.106.053330
PubMed:	View item in PubMed

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