Contribution of CBX4 to cumulus oophorus cell phenotype in mice and attendant effects in cumulus cell cloned embryos.

ABSTRACT: Cumulus oophorus cells play an essential role in oocyte development. They are also widely employed as donor cells for cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer. Our previous studies revealed that Cbx4 mRNA was overexpressed in cloned two-cell embryos. These data indicated that CBX4 may regulate normal cumulus cell differentiation and that its overexpression in clones could contribute to aberrant gene regulation. We used siRNA-mediated knockdown of Cbx4 to assess its role in determining cumulus cell phenotype and compared the effects of this knockdown to published data for aberrant gene regulation in cloned embryos. We observed widespread effects on the expression of genes related to diverse processes in cultured cumulus cells, including cell assembly/proliferation and DNA replication/repair

SUBMITTER: Hao L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3921348 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature