Production of hGFAP-DsRed transgenic Guangxi Bama mini-pigs via somatic cell nuclear transfer

The mini-pig is a useful animal model for human biomedical research due to its physiological similarity to humans and the ease of handling. In order to optimize the efficiency of production of transgenic Bama mini-pigs through somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), we examined the effects of contact inhibition, roscovitine treatment, and serum starvation on the cell cycle synchronization and transgenic cloned embryo development in vivo and in vitro after nuclear transfer. The analysis showed that the rates of G0/G1 stage cells in the contact inhibition (92.11%) and roscovitine treatment groups (89.59%) were significantly higher than in serum starvation group (80.82%). A higher rate of apoptosis was seen in the serum starvation group (14.13%) compared to the contact inhibition and roscovitine treatment groups (6.71 and 2.46% respectively, P < 0.05). There was a significant decrease in blastocyst yield in the serum starvation group (14.19%) compared to the roscovitine treatment and contact inhibition groups (21.31 and 20.32% respectively, P < 0.05). A total of 1070 transgenic cloned embryos derived from the three treatment groups were transferred to surrogate sows; one pregnancy was established and three embryos from the roscovitine treatment group successfully completed gestation. These results indicate that the roscovitine treatment was more effective at synchronizing transgenic kidney cells in Bama mini-pigs and allowed reconstructed embryos to develop to full term.