Effect of DJ-1 on early development in porcine nuclear transfer embryos

We aimed to identify a reprogramming factor in mammalian oocytes. DJ-1 is one candidate gene of the factor. Inhibition of DJ-1 function in nuclear transfer embryos affected developmental abilities. The downstream effect of this DJ-1 inhibition was examined using microarrays. Nuclear transfer (NT) embryos (23-26 embryos per each sample) were collected at 28 h after nuclear transfer when many of the embryos had just reached the 2-cell stage. Total RNA was extracted and hybridized on the Affymetrix GeneChip Porcine Genome Array. Global transcripts were compared among NT embryos injected with anti-DJ1 antibody (αDJ1-NT_1), NT embryos injected with IgG (IgG-NT_1), non-injected NT embryos (NT_1) and donor cells (DonorCell_1). Biologically different samples of αDJ1-NT (αDJ1-NT_2) and IgG-NT (IgG-NT_2) were prepared and the microarray analysis was repeated. In both trials, NT embryos injected with IgG (IgG-NT_1 or IgG-NT_2) were used as controls.