High Expression of Improves Early Development of Pig Embryos Produced by Handmade Cloning.

Handmade Cloning (HMC) is a pivotal technique for cloning pig embryos. Despite its significance, the low efficiency of this method hampers its widespread application. Although numerous factors and signaling pathways influencing embryo development have been studied, the mechanisms underlying low developmental capacity and insufficient reprogramming of cloned embryos remain elusive. In the present study, we sought to elucidate key regulatory factors involved in the development of pig HMC embryos by comparing and analyzing the gene expression profiles of HMC embryos with those of naturally fertilized (NF) embryos at the 4-cell, 8-cell, and 16-cell stages. The results showed that expression is markedly higher in NF embryos than in cloned counterparts. Subsequent experiments involving the injection of messenger RNA (mRNA) into HMC embryos showed that could enhance the blastocyst formation rate, upregulate pluripotent genes and metabolic pathways. This highlights the potential of as a critical factor in improving the development of pig HMC embryos.