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Rabbits generated from fibroblasts through nuclear transfer

¹ Center for Developmental Biology, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, School of Medicine and ² Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200092, P. R. China

Correspondence should be addressed to Hui Z Sheng; Email: hzsheng2003{at}yahoo.com

Somatic cell nuclear transfer offers new opportunities for genetic engineering and genome preservation in mammalian animal species. We show that, in addition to cumulus cells, cultured adult rabbit fibroblasts are also capable of supporting full-term development after nuclear transfer. Nuclear transfer embryos constructed using serum-starved fibroblasts showed a significantly higher developmental rate than non-starved fibroblasts through preimplantation stages. A total of 467 nuclear transfer embryos were transferred into the oviducts of pseudo pregnant mothers. Eight of the 20 surrogate rabbits carried the pregnancy to term and five of them gave birth naturally to a total of nine rabbits. However, all of the offspring died before postnatal day 10. A Caesarean section was performed on three surrogates, giving birth to a total of five rabbits, three of them survived and grew into healthy adults. DNA analyses confirmed that these rabbits were genetically identical to the donor male rabbit. The present study demonstrates that rabbits can be cloned from adult fibroblasts after culture.