Journal of Animal Science and Technology
Korean Society of Animal Science and Technology
Article

Lysophosphatidic acid improves development of porcine somatic cell nuclear transfer embryos

Ling Sun, Tao Lin, Jae Lee, Soy Kim, Ying Bai, Dong Jin*
1Hebei University of Engineering, Handan 056038, China.
2Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea.
*Corresponding Author: Dong Il Jin, E-mail: dijin@cnu.ac.kr.

© Copyright 2023 Korean Society of Animal Science and Technology. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Apr 26, 2023; Revised: Jun 21, 2023; Accepted: Jul 10, 2023

Published Online: Jul 10, 2023

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate whether lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) could improve the development of porcine somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryos. Porcine SCNT-derived embryos were cultured in chemically defined polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-based porcine zygote medium (PZM)-4 without or with LPA, and the development, cell proliferation potential, apoptosis, and expression levels of pluripotent markers were evaluated. LPA significantly increased the rates of cleavage and blastocyst formation compared to those seen in the LPA un-treatment (control) group. The expression levels of embryonic development-related genes (IGF2R, PCNA and CDH1) were higher (P < 0.05) in the LPA treatment group than in the control group. LPA significantly increased the numbers of total, inner cell mass and EdU (5-ethynyl-2’-deoxyuridine)-positive cells in porcine SCNT blastocysts compared to those seen in the control group. TUNEL assay showed that LPA significantly reduced the apoptosis rate in porcine SCNT-derived embryos; this was confirmed by decreases (P < 0.05) in the expression levels of pro-apoptotic genes, BAX and CASP3, and an increase (P < 0.05) in the expression level of the anti-apoptotic gene, BCL2L1. In addition, LPA significantly increased Oct4 expression at the gene and protein levels. Together, our data suggest that LPA improves the quality and development of porcine SCNT-derived embryos by reducing apoptosis and enhancing cell proliferation and pluripotency.

Keywords: Lysophosphatidic acid; Somatic cell nuclear transfer; Apoptosis; Cell proliferation; Oct4