Analysis of gene expression profiles in preimplantation stage embryos by DNA microarrays

Abstract

Objective: Little is known about the gene expression pattern in early embryonic/preimplantation development due to the difficulty of material collection and sensitivity of molecular tools used for analysis. In the past, large numbers of embryos have been needed to get sufficient material for analysis. In addition, tedious, labor-intensive molecular analysis such as cDNA library construction, suppressive subtractive hybridization and sequencing are required to deal with dynamic changes of gene expression within a very short period of time. To overcome these limitations, we have explored modified protocols for probe amplification used in DNA microarray analysis. This study was designed in order to investigate the global gene expressions and regulations following fertilization and during early mammalian embryonic development.