Avantea and Fondazione Avantea Onlus, Cremona, Italy.
Reproduction. 2021 Jun 11;162(1):F23-F32. doi: 10.1530/REP-21-0006.
SCNT (somatic cell nuclear transfer) has complemented the toolbox of ARTs offering yet another technique to reproduce animals in an unprecedented way. Despite remarkable achievements, SCNT suffers low efficiency, high pregnancy losses and higher than normal stillbirth rates that makes it an expensive technique to reproduce animals. Moreover, due to welfare issues associated with gestation and the newborn offspring, it is banned in some countries. It has become evident that these problems are of epigenetic nature associated with incomplete genome reprogramming, observed more frequently in ruminants and less often and of minor degree in pigs and horses. Genome editing is enormously benefiting from SCNT to turn genome edited cells into animals, even if zygote microinjection of CRISPR/Cas9 will become an alternative route in some occasions. SCNT will also be a route to reprogram somatic cell to pluripotency since bona fide iPSC in livestock are missing while embryonic stem cells have been now established. This opens the way to other technologies like the development of artificial gametes or interspecies nuclear transfer. To strengthen its commercial applications, SCNT will face three major challenges, that is, intellectual property (extremely unclear in genome editing), regulatory approval by the relevant authorities of the resuting potential products and finally, acceptance by the public who will eventually decide with its behavior the life or the death of the technology.
体细胞核移植(SCNT)为辅助生殖技术(ART)工具盒增添了一项新技术,以史无前例的方式复制动物。尽管取得了显著的成就,但 SCNT 效率低、妊娠损失高、死产率高于正常水平,使其成为一种昂贵的动物繁殖技术。此外,由于与妊娠和新生后代相关的福利问题,它在一些国家被禁止。显然,这些问题是与不完全基因组重编程相关的表观遗传性质,在反刍动物中观察到的频率更高,在猪和马中则频率较低且程度较轻。基因组编辑从 SCNT 中受益匪浅,可将基因组编辑细胞转化为动物,即使在某些情况下,受精卵微注射 CRISPR/Cas9 也将成为替代途径。SCNT 也将成为将体细胞重编程为多能性的途径,因为家畜中缺乏真正的 iPSC,而胚胎干细胞现已建立。这为其他技术(如人工配子的开发或种间核转移)开辟了道路。为了加强其商业应用,SCNT 将面临三大挑战,即知识产权(在基因组编辑中极其不清楚)、相关当局对潜在产品的监管批准,以及最终由公众决定,公众的行为将最终决定该技术的生死。