Effects of trichostatin A on pig SCNT blastocyst formation rate and cell number: A meta-analysis

Although somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) can be used to create transgenic pigs for human xenotransplantation, low efficiency limits its use. Trichostatin A (TSA) promotes SCNT embryo development, but whether TSA modifies SCNT blastocyst numbers is unclear. Thus, there is an urgent need to understand whether TSA modifies the rate and number of embryos that grow from oocytes to blastocysts in culture and what types of cell signaling pathways may be involved. Thus, we identified 63 reports, of which 13 are included in this meta-analysis. Data show that TSA significantly increased the SCNT blastocyst formation rate, but did not change blastocyst cell number. Due to study heterogeneity (I²>50%), we hypothesized that donor cells were of different backgrounds so we analyzed two donor cell subgroups: fetal and adult fibroblasts. Analysis of the fetal fibroblast subgroups showed no heterogeneity, but the adult fibroblast subgroups were heterogeneous, suggesting epigenetic reprogramming of fetal fibroblasts by TSA. Adult fibroblast heterogeneity may be complex and reprogramming by TSA is more difficult. Thus, TSA fibroblasts reprogramming is the source of heterogeneity in this meta-analysis. More work is needed to better understand how TSA influences SCNT pig embryonic development, and histone deacetylase inhibitors can be assessed with respect to SCNT pig embryos. Finally, efforts in epigenetic research may improve SCNT pig embryo outcomes.