Mouse fetuses by nuclear transfer from embryonic stem cells.

ABSTRACT

At present, two methods for cloning mammals by nuclear transfer are employed. The first is based on cell fusion and has been applied to domestic animals, such as sheep, cows, and goats. While, nuclear microinjection has been used in mice only. Cloning by nuclear transfer has been reported mainly with cells from primary culture and freshly isolated cells. Here, using ES cell line TT2, we tried to produce clone mouse embryos by the two methods. With ES cell line TT2 (10-13 passaged), 16% of reconstructed oocytes microinjected with the nuclei developed in vitro to the morula/blastocycst stage, and 50% of these embryos developed to fetuses until 14 dpc when transferred to pseudopregnant females. At 20 dpc implanted sites were degenerated and absorbed. Also, in vitro development of embryos reconstructed by electrofusion shown similar results. But, when transferred to recipients, subsequent development of embryos showed lower rates, as compared with embryos microinjected and from recipients live-born pups could not be obtained.