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Satoshi Kurosaka

Publications and source records attributed to Satoshi Kurosaka.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Differential reprogramming of somatic cell nuclei after transfer into mouse cleavage stage blastomeres.

Mammalian somatic cell cloning requires factors specific to the oocyte for reprogramming to succeed. This does not exclude that reprogramming continues during the zygote and cleavage stages. The capacity or role of zygotic and cleavage stages to reprogram somatic cell nuclei is difficult to assess due to the limited development of somatic cell nuclei transplanted into cytoplasts of these stages. Alternatively, tetraploid embryos have been used to study reprogramming and can be assessed for their contribution to extra-embryonic lineages. When mouse cumulus cell nuclei transgenic for Oct4-green fluorescent protein (GFP) were injected into intact two- and four-cell stage blastomeres, manipulated embryos developed into blastocysts with expression of Oct4-GFP as observed in embryos produced by nuclear transfer into metaphase II oocytes. However, only the latter contributed to extra-embryonic tissues in day 10.5 conceptuses, with the exclusion of the somatic genome in cells originating from transfer into blastomeres already at 5.5 days post conception. Somatic nuclei transferred into cleavage stage blastomeres reinitiated expression of an embyronic-specific transgene, but lacked the extent of reprogramming required for contribution to postimplantation development, even when complemented by an embryonic genome.

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Pluripotent lineage definition in bovine embryos by Oct4 transcript localization.

The POU-domain transcription factor Pou5f1 (Oct4) is restricted to pluripotent embryonic cells and the germ line of the mouse and is required for the maintenance of pluripotency of cells within the inner cell mass of the mouse blastocyst. Despite highly conserved genomic organization and regulatory regions between the mouse Oct4 gene and its bovine orthologue, bovine Oct4 protein is not restricted to the inner cell mass of blastocyst-stage embryos, suggesting that Oct4 may not be a key regulator of pluripotency in the bovine. We analyze the temporal and spatial distribution of Oct4 transcript in bovine oocytes and preimplantation-stage embryos, and in contrast to protein distribution, we find strong conservation between bovine and mouse. Oct4 transcript is present at low levels in the bovine oocyte. Similar to mouse, bovine Oct4 transcription begins one to two cell cycles after zygotic genome activation, followed by a sharp increase in transcription subsequent to compaction. Oct4 transcript is ubiquitously present in all cells of embryos at the morula stage; however, in Day 7 bovine blastocysts, Oct4 signal is not visible in the trophectoderm by in situ hybridization, indicating that transcriptional downregulation of Oct4 on differentiation is similar to that observed in mouse and other mammals. These results indicate that in contrast to protein distribution, regulation of Oct4 transcription is conserved between mammalian species.

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Dependence of DNA synthesis and in vitro development of bovine nuclear transfer embryos on the stage of the cell cycle of donor cells and recipient cytoplasts.

The effect of the stage of the cell cycle of donor cells and recipient cytoplasts on the timing of DNA replication and the developmental ability in vitro of bovine nuclear transfer embryos was examined. Embryos were reconstructed by fusing somatic cells with unactivated recipient cytoplasts or with recipient cytoplasts that were activated 2 h before fusion. Regardless of whether recipient cytoplasts were unactivated or activated, the embryos that were reconstructed from donor cells at the G0 phase initiated DNA synthesis at 6-9 h postfusion (hpf). The timing of DNA synthesis was similar to that of parthenogenetic embryos, and was earlier than that of the G0 cells in cell culture condition. Most embryos that were reconstructed from donor cells at the G1/S phase initiated DNA synthesis within 6 hpf. The developmental rate of embryos reconstructed by a combination of G1/S cells and activated cytoplasts was higher than the rates of embryos in the other combination of donor cells and recipient cytoplasts. The results suggest that the initial DNA synthesis of nuclear transfer embryos is affected by the state of the recipient oocytes, and that the timing of initiation of the DNA synthesis depends on the donor cell cycle. Our results also suggest that the cell cycles of somatic cells synchronized in the G1/S phase and activated cytoplasts of recipient oocytes are well coordinated after nuclear transfer, resulting in high developmental rates of nuclear transfer embryos to the blastocyst stage in vitro.

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