Roscovitine is a novel agent that can be used for the activation of porcine oocytes reconstructed with adult cutaneous or fetal fibroblast cell nuclei.

The present study was undertaken to investigate the preimplantation developmental competence of cloned pig embryos that were derived from fibroblast cell nuclei by different methods for the activation of reconstructed oocytes. In subgroups IA and IB, nuclear-transferred (NT) oocytes derived from either adult cutaneous or fetal fibroblast cells that had been classified as nonapoptotic by intra vitam analysis for programmed cell death using the YO-PRO-1 DNA fluorochrome underwent sequential physical (i.e., electrical) and chemical activation (SE-CA). This novel method of SE-CA, which was developed and optimized in our laboratory, involves treatment of reconstituted oocytes with direct current pulses and subsequent exposure to 7.5 μM calcium ionomycin, followed by incubation with 30 μM R-roscovitine (R-RSCV), 0.7 mM 6-dimethylaminopurine and 3.5 μg/mL cycloheximide. In subgroups IIA and IIB, NT oocytes were subjected to the standard method of simultaneous fusion and activation mediated by direct current pulses. The proportion of cloned embryos in subgroup IA that reached the morula and blastocyst stages was 145/248 (58.5%) and 78/248 (31.5%), respectively. The proportions of cloned embryos in subgroup IB that reached the morula and blastocyst stages were 186/264 (70.5%) and 112/264 (42.4%), respectively. In turn, subgroup IIA yielded proportions at the morula and blastocyst stages of 110/234 (47.0%) and 49/234 (20.9%), respectively. Subgroup IIB yielded proportions at the morula and blastocyst stages of 144/243 (59.3%) and 74/243 (30.5%), respectively. In summary, the SE-CA of NT oocytes reconstructed from either type of nonapoptotic/nonnecrotic (i.e., YO-PRO-1-negative) fibroblast cell resulted in porcine cloned embryos with considerably better in vitro developmental outcomes than those of cloned embryos generated using the simultaneous fusion and activation approach. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the successful stimulation of porcine NT oocytes using electric pulses followed by an additional activation with a higher dose (1.5 times) of calcium ionomycin and subsequent exposure to a combination of 30 μM R-RSCV and lower concentrations (by 3 times) of 6-dimethylaminopurine and cycloheximide. Moreover, we report here the first use of R-RSCV, a novel meiosis-promoting factor-related p34(cdc2) kinase inhibitor, in the oocyte activation protocol for the somatic cell cloning of pigs.