Establishment of Trophectoderm Cell Lines from Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) Embryos of Different Sources and Examination of In Vitro Developmental Competence, Quality, Epigenetic Status and Gene Expression in Cloned Embryos Derived from Them

Despite being successfully used to produce live offspring in many species, somatic cell nuclear transfer (NT) has had a limited applicability due to very low (>1%) live birth rate because of a high incidence of pregnancy failure, which is mainly due to placental dysfunction. Since this may be due to abnormalities in the trophectoderm (TE) cell lineage, TE cells can be a model to understand the placental growth disorders seen after NT. We isolated and characterized buffalo TE cells from blastocysts produced by in vitro fertilization (TE-IVF) and Hand-made cloning (TE-HMC), and compared their growth characteristics and gene expression, and developed a feeder-free culture system for their long-term culture. The TE-IVF cells were then used as donor cells to produce HMC embryos following which their developmental competence, quality, epigenetic status and gene expression were compared with those of HMC embryos produced using fetal or adult fibroblasts as donor cells. We found that although TE-HMC and TE-IVF cells have a similar capability to grow in culture, significant differences exist in gene expression levels between them and between IVF and HMC embryos from which they are derived, which may have a role in the placental abnormalities associated with NT pregnancies. Although TE cells can be used as donor cells for producing HMC blastocysts, their developmental competence and quality is lower than that of blastocysts produced from fetal or adult fibroblasts. The epigenetic status and expression level of many important genes is different in HMC blastocysts produced using TE cells or fetal or adult fibroblasts or those produced by IVF.