Embryonic stem cell as nuclear donor could promote in vitro development of the heterogeneous reconstructed embryo

The nucleus of a somatic cell could be dedifferentiated and reprogrammed in an enucleated heterogeneous oocyte. Some reconstructed oocytes could develop into blastocysts in vitro, and a few could develop into term normally after transferred into foster mothers, but most of cloning embryos fail to develop to term. In order to evaluate the efficacy of embryonic stem cell as nucleus donor in interspecific animal cloning, we reconstructed enucleated rabbit oocytes with nuclei from mouse ES cells, and analyzed the developmental ability of reconstructed embryos in vitro. Two kinds of fibroblast cells were used as donor control, one derived from ear skin of an adult Kunming albino mouse, and the other derived from a mouse fetus. Three types of cells were transferred into perivitelline space under zona pellucida of rabbit oocytes respectively. The reconstructed oocytes were fused and activated by electric pulses, and cultured in vitro. The developmental rate of reconstructed oocytes derived from embryonic stem cells was 16.1%, which was significantly' higher than that of both the adult mouse fibroblast cells (0% - 3.1%, P < 0.05) and fetus mouse fibroblast cells (2.1% - 3.7%, P < 0.05). Chromosome analysis confirmed that blastocyst cells were derived from ES donor cell. These observations show that reprogramming is easier in interspecific embryos reconstructed with ES cells than that reconstructed with somatic cells, and that ES cells have the higher ability to direct the reconstructed embryos development normally than fibroblast cells.