Porcine Granulosa-Cell-Derived Exosomes Enhance Oocyte Development: An In Vitro Study.

Recent studies have established that exosomes (EXs) derived from follicular fluid (FF) can promote oocyte development. However, the specific sources of these EXs and their regulatory mechanisms remain elusive. It is universally acknowledged that oocyte development requires signal communication between granulosa cells (GCs) and oocytes.

Comparative evaluation of production performances of cloned pigs derived from superior Duroc boars.

Since pig was successfully cloned in 2000, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) became a promising technique in preserving and expanding the genetics of superior boars. Assessing the safety, growth performance, and reproductive performance of cloned pigs and their progeny is critical for their wide application. In this study, three superior Duroc boars were used to construct 61,736 SCNT-cloned embryos.

Assessment of the Growth and Reproductive Performance of Cloned Pietrain Boars.

How to maximize the use of the genetic merits of the high-ranking boars (also called superior ones) is a considerable question in the pig breeding industry, considering the money and time spent on selection. Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is one of the potential ways to answer the question, which can be applied to produce clones with genetic resources of superior boar for the production of commercial pigs. For practical application, it is essential to investigate whether the clones and their progeny keep behaving better than the "normal boars", considering that in vitro culture and transfer manipulation would cause a series of harmful effects to the development of clones.

Study on Hematological and Biochemical Characters of Cloned Duroc Pigs and Their Progeny.

To increase public understanding in cloned animals produced by somatic cell nuclear transfer technology, our previous study investigated the carcass trait and meat quality of the clones (paper accepted), and this study we further evaluate differences by investigating the blood parameters in cloned pigs and their progeny. We collected blood samples from the clones and conventionally bred non-clones and their progeny, and investigated their hematological and blood biochemical characters. Our results supported the hypothesis that there was no significant difference between clones and non-clones, or their progeny.

Comparison of Carcass Traits, Meat Quality, and Chemical Composition of Tissues from Progeny Derived from Cloned and Noncloned Pigs.

Systematic studies of progeny derived from somatic cell nuclear transferred animals in their biophysical and biochemical characters are critical in assessing the safety of this kind of food. In this study, we compared the carcass traits and meat quality of 12 cloned and noncloned pigs, respectively, and chemical composition of tissues of 6 cloned and noncloned pigs, respectively. The carcass trait parameters, including body weight, carcass straight length, loin-eye area, backfat thickness at 10th and 11th interface, and rib number, were tested, and carcass yield was calculated.

Influence of embryo handling and transfer method on pig cloning efficiency.

The somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) technique could be used to produce genetically superior or genetically engineered cloned pigs that have wide application in agriculture and bioscience research. However, the efficiency of porcine SCNT currently is very low. Embryo transfer (ET) is a key step for the success of SCNT.

Effects of donor fibroblast cell type and transferred cloned embryo number on the efficiency of pig cloning.

Currently, cloning efficiency in pigs is very low. Donor cell type and number of cloned embryos transferred to an individual surrogate are two major factors that affect the successful rate of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) in pigs. This study aimed to compare the influence of different donor fibroblast cell types and different transferred embryo numbers on recipients' pregnancy rate and delivery rate, the average number of total clones born, clones born alive and clones born healthy per litter, and the birth rate of healthy clones (=total number of healthy cloned piglets born /total number of transferred cloned embryos).