Abstract
ObjectiveThe present study investigates pre- and post-implantation developmental competence of nuclear-transferred porcine embryos derived from male and female fetal fibroblasts.MethodsMale and female fetal fibroblasts were transferred to in vitro-matured enucleated oocytes and in vitro and in vivo developmental competence of reconstructed embryos was investigated. And, a total of 6,789 female fibroblast nuclear-transferred embryos were surgically transferred into 41 surrogate gilts and 4,746 male fibroblast nuclear-transferred embryos were surgically transferred into 25 surrogate gilts.ResultsThe competence to develop into blastocysts was not significantly different between the sexes. The mean cell number of female and male cloned blastocysts obtained by in vivo culture (143.8±10.5 to 159.2±14.8) was higher than that of in vitro culture of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) groups (31.4±8.3 to 33.4±11.1). After embryo transfer, 5 pregnant gilts from each treatment delivered 15 female and 22 male piglets. The average birth weight of the cloned piglets, gestation length, and the postnatal survival rates were not significantly different (p<0.05) between sexes.ConclusionThe present study found that the sex difference of the nuclear donor does not affect the developmental rate of porcine SCNT embryos. Furthermore, postnatal survivability of the cloned piglets was not affected by the sex of the donor cell.
Highlights
The technique of somatic cell cloning in mammalians has been developed in the last few decades after the production of the first cloned sheep from a mammary gland cell [1]
Several studies have compared the effects of different types of donor cells to promote embryo development after somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) in different species
The type of donor somatic cell is important for the development of cloned embryos; the fetal fibroblasts as a donor cell might be one of the best choices for positive SCNT in pigs [25]
Summary
The technique of somatic cell cloning in mammalians has been developed in the last few decades after the production of the first cloned sheep from a mammary gland cell [1]. Previous studies have applied different approaches for improving pig cloning efficiency and proposed that the selection of a suitable donor cell type could increase the success rate of cloned piglets [15,17]. Similar results have been attained using various cell types derived from different strains, sexes, and ages in mice [19] Based on these studies, the use of donor cells from different origins was discovered to be one of the key factors affecting cloning efficiency and survival rates of cloned piglets. The present study was conducted to investigate the developmental competence of somatic cell cloned porcine embryos derived from either a male or female fetal fibroblast cell as the donor cell
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