Piglets produced from cloned blastocysts cultured in vitro with GM-CSF

In general, pig embryos established by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) are transferred at the one-cell stage because of suboptimal embryo culture conditions. Improvements in embryo culture can increase the practical application of late embryo transfer. The goal of this study was to evaluate embryos cultured with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) in vitro, and to track the in vivo developmental competency of SCNT-derived blastocysts from these GM-CSF embryos. The receptor for GM-CSF was up-regulated in in vitro-produced embryos when compared to in vivo-produced cohorts, but the level decreased when GM-CSF was present. In vitro fertilized (IVF) embryos, supplemented with GM-CSF (2 or 10 ng/ml), showed a higher frequency of development to the blastocyst stage compared to controls. The total cell numbers of the blastocysts also increased with supplementation of GM-CSF. Molecular analysis demonstrates that IVF-derived blastocysts cultured with GM-CSF exhibit less apoptotic activity. Similarly, an increase in development to the blastocyst stage and an increase in the average total-cell number in the blastocysts were observed when SCNT-derived embryos were cultured with either concentration of GM-CSF (2 or 10 ng/ml). When SCNT-derived embryos, cultured with 10 ng/ml GM-CSF, were transferred into six surrogates at Day 6, five of the surrogates became pregnant and delivered healthy piglets. Our findings suggest that supplementation of GM-CSF can provide better culture conditions for IVF- and SCNT-derived embryos, and pig SCNT-derived embryos cultured with GM-CSF in vitro can successfully produce piglets when transferred into surrogates at the blastocyst stage. Thus, it may be practical to begin performing SCNT-derived embryo transfer at the blastocyst stage.