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Donor cell differentiation, reprogramming, and cloning efficiency: Elusive or illusive correlation?
Author(s) -
Oback B.,
Wells D.N.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
molecular reproduction and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.745
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1098-2795
pISSN - 1040-452X
DOI - 10.1002/mrd.20654
Subject(s) - biology , reprogramming , cloning (programming) , blastomere , somatic cell , somatic cell nuclear transfer , blastocyst , genetics , embryonic stem cell , stem cell , embryo , microbiology and biotechnology , inner cell mass , cell , embryogenesis , gene , computer science , programming language
Compared to other assisted reproductive technologies, mammalian nuclear transfer (NT) cloning is inefficient in generating viable offspring. It has been postulated that nuclear reprogramming and cloning efficiency can be increased by choosing less differentiated cell types as nuclear donors. This hypothesis is mainly supported by comparative mouse cloning experiments using early blastomeres, embryonic stem (ES) cells, and terminally differentiated somatic donor cells. We have re‐evaluated these comparisons, taking into account different NT procedures, the use of donor cells from different genetic backgrounds, sex, cell cycle stages, and the lack of robust statistical significance when post‐blastocyst development is compared. We argue that while the reprogrammability of early blastomeres appears to be much higher than that of somatic cells, it has so far not been conclusively determined whether differentiation status affects cloning efficiency within somatic donor cell lineages. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 74: 646–654, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.