Expression profiling of ntTS and TS cells

Placental abnormalities occur frequently in cloned animals. To investigate gene expression profile of trophoblast cell lineage of somatic cell nuclear transferred (NT) embryos, we established TS cells from blastocysts produced by NT at the blastocyst stage. Five independent TS cell lines derived from NT embryos were used in this study. Those included three lines from BDF1 background NT embryos and two lines from EGFP-Tg CD-1 background NT embryos. Two each of control lines, derived from native blastocysts of each background, were also used.