1
|
Pérez-Cerezales S, Laguna-Barraza R, de Castro AC, Sánchez-Calabuig MJ, Cano-Oliva E, de Castro-Pita FJ, Montoro-Buils L, Pericuesta E, Fernández-González R, Gutiérrez-Adán A. Sperm selection by thermotaxis improves ICSI outcome in mice. Sci Rep 2018; 8:2902. [PMID: 29440764 PMCID: PMC5811574 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-21335-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2017] [Accepted: 01/29/2018] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The ejaculate is a heterogeneous pool of spermatozoa containing only a small physiologically adequate subpopulation for fertilization. As there is no method to isolate this subpopulation, its specific characteristics are unknown. This is one of the main reasons why we lack effective tools to identify male infertility and for the low efficiency of assisted reproductive technologies. The aim of this study was to improve ICSI outcome by sperm selection through thermotaxis. Here we show that a specific subpopulation of mouse and human spermatozoa can be selected in vitro by thermotaxis and that this subpopulation is the one that enters the fallopian tube in mice. Further, we confirm that these selected spermatozoa in mice and humans show a much higher DNA integrity and lower chromatin compaction than unselected sperm, and in mice, they give rise to more and better embryos through intracytoplasmic sperm injection, doubling the number of successful pregnancies. Collectively, our results indicate that a high quality sperm subpopulation is selected in vitro by thermotaxis and that this subpopulation is also selected in vivo within the fallopian tube possibly by thermotaxis.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Esther Cano-Oliva
- Unit of Reproduction, Hospital Universitario Príncipe de Asturias, Alcalá de Henares, Spain
| | | | - Luis Montoro-Buils
- Unit of Reproduction, Hospital Universitario Príncipe de Asturias, Alcalá de Henares, Spain
| | - Eva Pericuesta
- Department of Animal Reproduction, INIA, Avda. Puerta de Hierro, Madrid, Spain
| | | | | |
Collapse
|
2
|
Cao F, Fukuda A, Watanabe H, Kono T. The transcriptomic architecture of mouse Sertoli cell clone embryos reveals temporal–spatial-specific reprogramming. Reproduction 2013; 145:277-88. [PMID: 23580949 PMCID: PMC3607486 DOI: 10.1530/rep-12-0435] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Somatic cell nuclear transfer, a technique used to generate clone embryos by transferring the nucleus of a somatic cell into an enucleated oocyte, is an excellent approach to study the reprogramming of the nuclei of differentiated cells. Here, we conducted a transcriptomic study by performing microarray analysis on single Sertoli cell nuclear transfer (SeCNT) embryos throughout preimplantation development. The extensive data collected from the oocyte to the blastocyst stage helped to identify specific genes that were incorrectly reprogrammed at each stage, thereby providing a novel perspective for understanding reprogramming progression in SeCNT embryos.This attempt provided an opportunity to discuss the possibility that ectopic gene expression could be involved in the developmental failure of SeCNT embryos. Network analysis at each stage suggested that in total, 127 networks were involved in developmental and functional disorders in SeCNT embryos. Furthermore, chromosome mapping using our time-lapse expression data highlighted temporal–spatial changes of the abnormal expression, showing the characteristic distribution of the genes on each chromosome.Thus, the present study revealed that the preimplantation development of SeCNT embryos appears normal; however, the progression of incorrect reprogramming is concealed throughout development.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Feng Cao
- Department of Bioscience, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 156-8502, Japan
| | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
3
|
Teperek M, Miyamoto K. Nuclear reprogramming of sperm and somatic nuclei in eggs and oocytes. Reprod Med Biol 2013; 12:133-149. [PMID: 24273450 PMCID: PMC3824936 DOI: 10.1007/s12522-013-0155-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2013] [Accepted: 05/18/2013] [Indexed: 10/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Eggs and oocytes have a prominent ability to reprogram sperm nuclei for ensuring embryonic development. The reprogramming activity that eggs/oocytes intrinsically have towards sperm is utilised to reprogram somatic nuclei injected into eggs/oocytes in nuclear transfer (NT) embryos. NT embryos of various species can give rise to cloned animals, demonstrating that eggs/oocytes can confer totipotency even to somatic nuclei. However, many studies indicate that reprogramming of somatic nuclei is not as efficient as that of sperm nuclei. In this review, we explain how and why sperm and somatic nuclei are differentially reprogrammed in eggs/oocytes. Recent studies have shown that sperm chromatin is epigenetically modified to be adequate for early embryonic development, while somatic nuclei do not have such modifications. Moreover, epigenetic memories encoded in sperm chromatin are transgenerationally inherited, implying unique roles of sperm. We also discuss whether somatic nuclei can be artificially modified to acquire sperm-like chromatin states in order to increase the efficiency of nuclear reprogramming.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Marta Teperek
- The Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute, The Henry Wellcome Building of Cancer and Developmental Biology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, CB2 1QN Cambridge, United Kingdom ; Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | | |
Collapse
|
4
|
Ogura A, Inoue K, Wakayama T. Recent advancements in cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2013; 368:20110329. [PMID: 23166393 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2011.0329] [Citation(s) in RCA: 152] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) cloning is the sole reproductive engineering technology that endows the somatic cell genome with totipotency. Since the first report on the birth of a cloned sheep from adult somatic cells in 1997, many technical improvements in SCNT have been made by using different epigenetic approaches, including enhancement of the levels of histone acetylation in the chromatin of the reconstructed embryos. Although it will take a considerable time before we fully understand the nature of genomic programming and totipotency, we may expect that somatic cell cloning technology will soon become broadly applicable to practical purposes, including medicine, pharmaceutical manufacturing and agriculture. Here we review recent progress in somatic cell cloning, with a special emphasis on epigenetic studies using the laboratory mouse as a model.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Atsuo Ogura
- RIKEN BioResource Center, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
| | | | | |
Collapse
|
5
|
Mason K, Liu Z, Aguirre-Lavin T, Beaujean N. Chromatin and epigenetic modifications during early mammalian development. Anim Reprod Sci 2012; 134:45-55. [PMID: 22921722 DOI: 10.1016/j.anireprosci.2012.08.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
In mammals, the embryonic genome is transcriptionally inactive after fertilization and embryonic gene expression is initiated during the preimplantation developmental period, during so-called "embryonic genome activation (EGA)". EGA is dependent on the presence of the basal transcriptional machinery components but also on the parental genome reorganization after fertilization. Indeed, during the first cell cycles, the embryonic nuclei undergo intense remodelling that participates in the regulation of embryonic development. Among the mechanisms of this remodeling, it appears that modifications of epigenetic marks are essential especially at the time of embryonic genome activation. This review will focus on DNA methylation and histone modifications such as acetylation or methylation which are important to produce healthy embryos. We will also consider nuclear higher-order structures, such as chromosomes territories and pericentric heterochromatin clusters. The relevance of these chromatin epigenetic modifications has been sustained by the work performed on cloned embryos produced through nuclear transfer of somatic donor cells. It is indeed believed that incomplete reprogramming of the somatic nucleus, in other words, the incomplete re-establishment of the embryonic epigenetic patterns and peculiar nuclear organization may be among the causes of development failure of cloned animals. This will also be discussed in this review.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Karlla Mason
- INRA, UMR 1198 Biologie du Développement et Reproduction, F-78350 Jouy en Josas, France
| | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
6
|
Balbach ST, Esteves TC, Houghton FD, Siatkowski M, Pfeiffer MJ, Tsurumi C, Kanzler B, Fuellen G, Boiani M. Nuclear reprogramming: kinetics of cell cycle and metabolic progression as determinants of success. PLoS One 2012; 7:e35322. [PMID: 22530006 PMCID: PMC3329427 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0035322] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2011] [Accepted: 03/14/2012] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Establishment of totipotency after somatic cell nuclear transfer (NT) requires not only reprogramming of gene expression, but also conversion of the cell cycle from quiescence to the precisely timed sequence of embryonic cleavage. Inadequate adaptation of the somatic nucleus to the embryonic cell cycle regime may lay the foundation for NT embryo failure and their reported lower cell counts. We combined bright field and fluorescence imaging of histone H2b-GFP expressing mouse embryos, to record cell divisions up to the blastocyst stage. This allowed us to quantitatively analyze cleavage kinetics of cloned embryos and revealed an extended and inconstant duration of the second and third cell cycles compared to fertilized controls generated by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Compared to fertilized embryos, slow and fast cleaving NT embryos presented similar rates of errors in M phase, but were considerably less tolerant to mitotic errors and underwent cleavage arrest. Although NT embryos vary substantially in their speed of cell cycle progression, transcriptome analysis did not detect systematic differences between fast and slow NT embryos. Profiling of amino acid turnover during pre-implantation development revealed that NT embryos consume lower amounts of amino acids, in particular arginine, than fertilized embryos until morula stage. An increased arginine supplementation enhanced development to blastocyst and increased embryo cell numbers. We conclude that a cell cycle delay, which is independent of pluripotency marker reactivation, and metabolic restraints reduce cell counts of NT embryos and impede their development.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Franchesca Dawn Houghton
- Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, United Kingdom
| | - Marcin Siatkowski
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Disorders, DZNE, Rostock, Germany
- Institute for Biostatistics and Informatics in Medicine and Ageing Research, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany
| | | | - Chizuko Tsurumi
- Department of Radiation Oncology, University Hospital Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Benoit Kanzler
- Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Georg Fuellen
- Institute for Biostatistics and Informatics in Medicine and Ageing Research, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany
| | - Michele Boiani
- Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, Münster, Germany
- * E-mail:
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Mizutani E, Yamagata K, Ono T, Akagi S, Geshi M, Wakayama T. Abnormal chromosome segregation at early cleavage is a major cause of the full-term developmental failure of mouse clones. Dev Biol 2012; 364:56-65. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2012.01.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2011] [Revised: 12/27/2011] [Accepted: 01/03/2012] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
|
8
|
Thuan NV, Kishigami S, Wakayama T. How to improve the success rate of mouse cloning technology. J Reprod Dev 2010; 56:20-30. [PMID: 20203432 DOI: 10.1262/jrd.09-221a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 95] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
It has now been 13 years since the first cloned mammal Dolly the sheep was generated from somatic cells using nuclear transfer (SCNT). Since then, this technique has been considered an important tool not only for animal reproduction but also for regenerative medicine. However, the success rate is still very low and the mechanisms involved in genomic reprogramming are not yet clear. Moreover, the NT technique requires donated fresh oocyte, which raises ethical problems for production of human cloned embryo. For this reason, the use of induced pluripotent stem cells for genomic reprogramming and for regenerative medicine is currently a hot topic in this field. However, we believe that the NT approach remains the only valid way for the study of reproduction and basic biology. For example, only the NT approach can reveal dynamic and global modifications in the epigenome without using genetic modification, and it can generate offspring from a single cell or even a frozen dead body. Thanks to much hard work by many groups, cloning success rates are increasing slightly year by year, and NT cloning is now becoming a more applicable method. This review describes how to improve the efficiency of cloning, the establishment of clone-derived embryonic stem cells and further applications.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Nguyen Van Thuan
- Department of Animal Bioscience and Biotechnology, Konkuk University, South Korea
| | | | | |
Collapse
|
9
|
Yamagata K, Suetsugu R, Wakayama T. Assessment of chromosomal integrity using a novel live-cell imaging technique in mouse embryos produced by intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Hum Reprod 2009; 24:2490-9. [DOI: 10.1093/humrep/dep236] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
|
10
|
Kawasumi M, Unno Y, Matsuoka T, Nishiwaki M, Anzai M, Amano T, Mitani T, Kato H, Saeki K, Hosoi Y, Iritani A, Kishigami S, Matsumoto K. Abnormal DNA methylation of the Oct-4 enhancer region in cloned mouse embryos. Mol Reprod Dev 2009; 76:342-50. [PMID: 18932201 DOI: 10.1002/mrd.20966] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Oct-4 is essential for normal embryonic development, and abnormal Oct-4 expression in cloned embryos contributes to cloning inefficiency. However, the causes of abnormal Oct-4 expression in cloned embryos are not well understood. As DNA methylation in regulatory regions is known to control transcriptional activity, we investigated the methylation status of three transcriptional regulatory regions of the Oct-4 gene in cloned mouse embryos--the distal enhancer (DE), the proximal enhancer (PE), and the promoter regions. We also investigated the level of Oct-4 gene expression in cloned embryos. Immunochemistry revealed that 85% of cloned blastocysts expressed Oct-4 in both trophectoderm and inner cell mass cells. DNA methylation analysis revealed that the PE region methylation was greater in cloned morulae than in normal morulae. However, the same region was less methylated in cloned blastocysts than in normal blastocysts. We found abnormal expression of de novo methyltransferase 3b in cloned blastocysts. These results indicate that cloned embryos have aberrant DNA methylation in the CpG sites of the PE region of Oct-4, and this may contribute directly to abnormal expression of this gene in cloned embryos.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Miyuri Kawasumi
- Division of Biological Science, Graduate School of Biology-Oriented Science and Technology, Kinki University, Wakayama, Japan
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
11
|
Probst AV, Almouzni G. Pericentric heterochromatin: dynamic organization during early development in mammals. Differentiation 2007; 76:15-23. [PMID: 17825083 DOI: 10.1111/j.1432-0436.2007.00220.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 64] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Constitutive heterochromatin in mammals is essentially found at centromeres, which are key chromosomal elements that ensure proper chromosome segregation. These regions are considered to be epigenetically defined, given that it is not sequence composition but chromatin organization that defines centromere function. How such an epigenetically defined domain, like the centromere, can be established during development and maintained during somatic cell life are fundamental questions. This review discusses the most recent insights into centromeric heterochromatin organization and replication. We further highlight the plasticity of this domain by describing the large-scale re-organization that occurs during development.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Aline V Probst
- Laboratory of Nuclear Dynamics and Genome Plasticity, UMR 218 CNRS/Institut Curie 26, rue d'Ulm, 75248 Paris Cedex 5, France
| | | |
Collapse
|