title: Active demethylation of individual genes in intracytoplasmic sperm injection rabbit embryos.
abstract: Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), as an assisted reproduction technique, has been widely used in animal and human. However, its possible effect on epigenetic changes has not been well studied. To investigate whether ICSI can induce aberrant DNA methylation changes in rabbit preimplantation embryos, we examined the methylation status of the SP-A promoter region and the satellite sequence Rsat IIE by bisulfite-sequencing technology. The SP-A promoter region was extensively demethylated before the first round of DNA replication commences, and the unmethylated status was maintained until morula when dynamic remethylation occurred. A similar but more moderate demethylation process was observed in satellite sequence Rsat IIE. These results are in contrast with the previous reports of no active demethylation in normal rabbit embryos, suggesting that the active demethylation we observed may be induced by ICSI.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yan-Ling
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Zhi-Sheng
authors.initials: ZS
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.forename: Shu-Zhen
authors.initials: SZ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Heide
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schatten
authors.forename: Da-Yuan
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Qing-Yuan
authors.initials: QY
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000378:metabolism*; D019175:DNA Methylation; D004261:DNA Replication / Q000502:physiology; D004276:DNA, Satellite / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009028:Morula / Q000378:metabolism; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D037662:Pulmonary Surfactant-Associated Protein A / Q000235:genetics*; D011817:Rabbits; D020554:Sperm Injections, Intracytoplasmic / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D004276:DNA, Satellite; D037662:Pulmonary Surfactant-Associated Protein A