Nuclear transfer improves the developmental potential of embryos derived from cytoplasmic deficient oocytes

Zhaodi Liao; Yuzhuo Li; Chunyang Li; Xinyan Bian; Qiang Sun

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.107299

Nuclear transfer improves the developmental potential of embryos derived from cytoplasmic deficient oocytes

iScience. 2023 Jul 10;26(8):107299. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107299. eCollection 2023 Aug 18.

Authors

Zhaodi Liao^{1

2

3}, Yuzhuo Li^{1

2}, Chunyang Li^{1

2}, Xinyan Bian^{1

2}, Qiang Sun^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Neuroscience, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
² Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Technology, Shanghai 201210, China.
³ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.

Abstract

Embryo development after fertilization is largely determined by the oocyte quality, which is in turn dependent on the competence of both the cytoplasm and nucleus. Here, to improve the efficiency of embryo development from developmentally incompetent oocytes, we performed spindle-chromosome complex transfer (ST) between in vitro matured (IVM) and in vivo matured (IVO) oocytes of the non-human primate rhesus monkey. We observed that the blastocyst rate of embryos derived from transferring the spindle-chromosome complex (SCC) of IVM oocytes into enucleated IVO oocytes was comparable with that of embryos derived from IVO oocytes. After transferring the reconstructed embryos into the uterus of surrogate mothers, two live rhesus monkeys were obtained, indicating that the nuclei of IVM oocytes support both the pre-and post-implantation embryo development of non-human primates.

Keywords: Cell biology; Female reproductive endocrinology; Reproductive medicine.