title: Aggregation of pre-implantation embryos improves establishment of parthenogenetic stem cells and expression of imprinted genes.
abstract: Parthenogenetic embryonic stem cells (PgES) might advance cell replacement therapies and provide a valuable in vitro model system to study the genomic imprinting. However, the differential potential of PgES cells was limited. It could result from relative low heterology of PgES cells compared with ES cells from fertilization (fES), which produce different expression of most imprinted genes. Here, we described the establishment of PgES cells by aggregating parthenogenetic embryos at the 8-cell stage (aPgES cells), which may increase heterozygy. We found that derivation of aPgES cells in association with an increased number of inner cell mass cells by aggregating was more efficient than that of PgES cells from a single parthenogenetic blastocyst. The aPgES cells have normal karyotype, stain positive for alkaline phosphatase, express high levels of ES cell markers and can differentiate into teratomas composed of the three germ layers. Moreover, compared with PgES cells, the more highly upregulated paternally expressed imprinted genes were observed in aPgES cells, the same change was not shown in aPg blastocysts. This suggested that the aggregation induced effect could modify the expression of paternally expressed imprinted genes. Our studies showed that aPgES cells, the expression of imprinted genes in which more closely resemble fES cells than PgES cells, would contribute to all organs and avoiding immuno-rejection, which may provide invaluable material for regeneration medicine.
authors.affiliation: Department of Histology and Embryology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
authors.forename: Zhi-Yan
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Shan
authors.forename: Yan-Shuang
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Xing-Hui
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Xue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: Zhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Zhen-Dong
authors.initials: ZD
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Chun-Jia
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Rui-Zhen
authors.initials: RZ
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Zhao-Yuan
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jing-Ling
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Zhong-Hua
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lei
mesh_terms: D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D002452:Cell Count; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D018392:Genomic Imprinting; D005855:Germ Layers / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D059785:Karyotype; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008819:Mice, Nude; D050814:Octamer Transcription Factor-3 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D009865:Oocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D010312:Parthenogenesis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D020554:Sperm Injections, Intracytoplasmic; D013724:Teratoma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D015533:Transcriptional Activation
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D050814:Octamer Transcription Factor-3; C494174:Pou5f1 protein, mouse; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase