Cloned transgenic swine via in vitro production and cryopreservation

It has been notoriously difficult to successfully cryopreserve swine embryos, a task that has been even more difficult for in vitro-produced embryos. The first reproducible method of cryopreserving in vivo-produced swine embryos was after centrifugation and removal of the lipids. Here we report the adaptation of a similar process that permits the cryopreservation of in vitro-produced somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) swine embryos. These embryos develop to the blastocyst stage and survive cryopreservation. Transfer of 163 cryopreserved SCNT embryos to two surrogates produced 10 piglets. Application of this technique may permit national and international movement of cloned transgenic swine embryos, storage until a suitable surrogate is available, or the long-term frozen storage of valuable genetics.