29 SCRIPTAID IMPROVES SOMATIC NUCLEAR TRANSFER EFFICIENCY DURING IN VITRO CULTURE OF PORCINE EMBRYOS DERIVED FROM INBRED MINIATURE PIG FETAL FIBROBLASTS

Porcine somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is limited to the same or next day surgical embryo transfer due to poor culture conditions in vitro. In this study, we aimed to overcome this problem by treating SCNT embryos with scriptaid, an inhibitor of histone deacetylase (HDACi) that helps with epigenetic reprogramming of the somatic nuclei. Scriptaid was chosen over other HDACi because it has been shown to improve histone acetylation in the same pattern as that of IVF embryos as well as its low toxicity characteristic (Zhao et al. 2009 Biol. Reprod. 81, 525–530; Zhao et al. 2010 Cell Reprogram. 12, 75–78). An inbred miniature pig fetal fibroblast cell line that is known to give low blastocyst rate in culture was used as a source of donor cells transferred into enucleated oocytes. Traditional SCNT was performed; embryos were fused and chemically activated in 10 µM ionomycin for 5 min and 2 mM DMAP for 3 to 4 h before being transferred into scriptaid. Embryos were treated with 500 nM scriptaid (Zhao et al. 2010) for 18 h and the untreated group was used as control. A total of 806 oocytes were used in 8 replicates. The constructed embryos were cultured in modified porcine zygote medium 5 (mPZM-5) for 7 days at 39°C in 5% O2, 5% CO2, 90% N2 atmosphere. Cleavage rates were assessed at 2.5 days and blastocyst rates at Day 7 after activation. Data were analysed by ANOVA using GLM, and percentages were transformed using arcsin square root using Statistix 10 software (Tallahassee, FL, USA). There were no differences in cleavage rates for control group v. scriptaid (55.3 v. 49.9%; P > 0.1; Table 1). The blastocyst rate per construct showed remarkable increase in the scriptaid treated group compared with the control group (12.8 v. 2.2%; P < 0.01; Table 1). Similarly, a significant effect was observed for blastocyst per embryos cleaved where scriptaid had higher rates compared with control (25.8 v. 5.8%; P < 0.01). These results indicated that improving nuclear reprogramming of miniature porcine SCNT clones by scriptaid treatment enhanced blastocyst production during the in vitro culture of porcine embryos. Table 1. Mean (± s.e.m.) measures of embryonic development of SCNT embryos