The health of somatic cell cloned cattle and their offspring.

The cloning syndrome is a continuum with the consequences of abnormal reprogramming manifest throughout gestation, the neo-natal period, and into adulthood in the cloned generation, but it does not appear to be transmitted to subsequent offspring following sexual reproduction. Most in vivo studies on bovine somatic cell cloning have focused on development during pregnancy and the neo-natal period. In this paper, we report on the viability and health of cloned cattle in adulthood. From our studies at AgResearch, we find that between weaning and 4 years of age, the annual mortality rate in cattle cloned from somatic cells is at least 8%. Although the reasons for death are variable and some potentially preventable, the main mortality factor in this period is euthanasia due to musculoskeletal abnormalities. This includes animals with severely contracted flexor tendons and those displaying chronic lameness, particularly in milking cows. In contrast, no deaths beyond weaning have so far been encountered with the offspring of clones where the oldest animals are 3 years of age. In surviving cloned cattle, blood profiles and other indicators of general physiological function such as growth rate, reproduction, rearing of offspring, and milk production are all within the normal phenotypic ranges.

Cloned cattle derived from a novel zona-free embryo reconstruction system.

As the demand for cloned embryos and offspring increases, the need arises for the development of nuclear transfer procedures that are improved in both efficiency and ease of operation. Here, we describe a novel zona-free cloning method that doubles the throughput in cloned bovine embryo production over current procedures and generates viable offspring with the same efficiency. Elements of the procedure include zona-free enucleation without a holding pipette, automated fusion of 5-10 oocyte-donor cell pairs and microdrop in vitro culture. Using this system, zona-free embryos were reconstructed from five independent primary cell lines and cultured either singularly (single-IVC) or as aggregates of three (triple-IVC). Blastocysts of transferable quality were obtained at similar rates from zona-free single-IVC, triple-IVC, and control zona-intact embryos (33%, 25%, and 29%, respectively). In a direct comparison, there was no significant difference in development to live calves at term between single-IVC, triple-IVC, and zona-intact embryos derived from the same adult fibroblast line (10%, 13%, and 15%, respectively). This zona-free cloning method could be straightforward for users of conventional cloning procedures to adopt and may prove a simple, fast, and efficient alternative for nuclear cloning of other species as well.

Coordination between donor cell type and cell cycle stage improves nuclear cloning efficiency in cattle.

Several studies have shown that both quiescent and proliferating somatic donor cells can be fully reprogrammed after nuclear transfer (NT) and result in viable offspring. So far, however, no comparative study has conclusively demonstrated the relative importance of donor cell cycle stage on nuclear cloning efficiency. Here, we compare two different types of bovine fetal fibroblasts (BFFs) that were synchronized in G(0), G(1), and different phases within G(1). We show that for non-transgenic (non-TG) fibroblasts, serum starvation into G(0) results in a significantly higher percentage of viable calves at term than synchronization in early G(1) or late G(1). For transgenic fibroblasts, however, cells selected in G(1) show significantly higher development to calves at term and higher post-natal survival to weaning than cells in G(0). This suggests that it may be necessary to coordinate donor cell type and cell cycle stage to maximize overall cloning efficiency.

Parkinson's disease and CYP1A2 activity.

UNLABELLED: AIMS MPTP, a neurotoxin which induces parkinsonism is partially metabolized by the enzyme CYP1A2. Smoking appears to protect against Parkinson's disease (PD) and cigarette smoke induces CYP1A2 activity. Thus, we investigated the hypothesis that idiopathic PD is associated with lower CYP1A2 activity using caffeine as a probe compound. METHODS CYP1A2 activity was assessed using saliva paraxanthine (PX) to caffeine (CA) ratios. Caffeine half-life was also estimated from salivary concentrations of caffeine at 2 and 5 h post dose. 117 treated and 40 untreated patients with PD and 105 healthy control subjects were studied. RESULTS PX/CA ratios were 0. 57, 0.93 and 0.77 in treated patients, untreated patients and healthy control subjects, respectively, with no significant differences between study groups (95% CI: treated patients vs controls -0.24, 0.57; untreated patients vs controls -0.75, 0.35). However, patients with PD (treated or untreated) had caffeine half-lives shorter than that in controls (treated patients: 262 min, untreated patients: 244 min, controls: 345 min; 95% CI: controls vs treated patients 23, 143 (P = 0.003); controls vs untreated patients 19, 184 (P = 0.011)). Amongst the patients with PD, caffeine half-life was also inversely related to the age of onset of disease (P = 0.012); gender and concomitant drugs did not influence this significantly. CONCLUSIONS: Based on PX/CA ratio, there was no evidence of decreased CYP1A2 activity in patients compared with control subjects. The observed decrease in the elimination half-life of caffeine in PD may be caused by increased CYP2E1 activity, an enzyme that also contributes to the metabolism of caffeine. The latter warrants further investigation.