Effects of Trichostatin A and PXD101 on the In Vitro Development of Mouse Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer Embryos

The low success rate of animal cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is believed to be associated with aberrant epigenetic nuclear reprogramming. It has been demonstrated that treatment with histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis) enhances developmental potential of SCNT embryos. Previous studies in many species revealed that treatment of SCNT embryos with trichostatin A (TSA)-an HDACi-significantly enhances the in vitro development of SCNT embryos. In this study, we compared two different SCNT protocols with TSA and investigate, for the first time, the effect of another new HDACi, PXD101 (belinostat), on in vitro development of mouse SCNT embryo. Rates of blastocyst development in mouse SCNT embryos treated with either 5 nM TSA during (6 hours) and after (4 hours) activation (39.1%) or with 50nM PXD101 during (6 hours) and after (4 hours) activation (40.2%) were significantly higher than those of nontreated SCNT embryos (11.5%) and both treatments also significantly improved the subsequent establishment of NT-ESCs in comparison with the nontreated group (38.1% and 40.9% vs. 11.8%). In conclusion, we optimized the TSA concentration and treatment timing and, for the first time, investigated the effect of PXD101 on mouse development of SCNT embryos and establishment of NT-ESCs.