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Control of nuclear remodelling and subsequent in vitro development and methylation status of porcine nuclear transfer embryos

¹ School of Veterinary Medicine² College of Animal Life Sciences³ Institute of Veterinary Science, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 200-701, South Korea

Correspondence should be addressed to H T Cheong; Email: htcheong{at}kangwon.ac.kr

We attempted to control the nuclear remodelling of somatic cell nuclear transfer embryos (NTs) and examined their subsequent development and DNA methylation patterns in pigs. Porcine foetal fibroblasts were fused to enucleated oocytes treated with either 5 mM caffeine for 2.5 h or 0.5 mM vanadate for 0.5 h. After activation, NTs were cultured in vitro for 6 days to examine their development. The nuclear remodelling type of the reconstituted embryos was evaluated 1 h after fusion. Methylated DNA of in vitro-fertilised (IVF) embryos and NTs at various developmental stages and of donor cells was detected using a 5-methylcytosine (5-MeC) antibody. Caffeine-treated NTs induced premature chromosome condensation at a high rate (P<0.05), whereas most vanadate-treated NTs formed a pronucleus-like structure. Although cleavage rates to the two-cell stage did not differ among groups, delayed cleavage was observed in the vanadate-treated group. The blastocyst formation rate was significantly reduced by vanadate treatment compared with caffeine-treated and non-treated (control) NT groups (P<0.05). The apoptotic cell index of NT blastocysts was lower in the caffeine-treated group than in other groups (P<0.05). The methylation patterns were similar among NTs, but more hypermethylated DNA was observed at the four-cell stage of control and vanadate-treated NTs when compared with that in IVF embryos (P<0.05). Thus, the nuclear remodelling type controlled by caffeine or vanadate treatment can affect in vitro development and the methylation status of NTs in relation to nuclear reprogramming.

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