Active demethylation of individual genes in intracytoplasmic sperm injection rabbit embryos.
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.
Zhang
Yan-Ling
YL
State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Chen
Tao
T
Jiang
Yan
Y
Zhong
Zhi-Sheng
ZS
Liu
Shu-Zhen
SZ
Hou
Yi
Y
Schatten
Heide
H
Chen
Da-Yuan
DY
Sun
Qing-Yuan
QY
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
D004276:DNA, Satellite; D037662:Pulmonary Surfactant-Associated Protein A