Application of the modified handmade cloning technique to pigs

Although somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is frequently employed to produce cloned animals in laboratories, this technique is expensive and inefficient. Therefore, the handmade cloning (HMC) technique has been suggested to simplify and advance the cloning process, however, HMC wastes many oocytes and leads to mitochondrial heteroplasmy. To solve these problems, we propose a modified handmade cloning (mHMC) technique that uses simple laboratory equipment, i.e., a Pasteur pipette and an alcohol lamp, applying it to porcine embryo cloning. To validate the application of mHMC to pig cloning, embryos produced through SCNT and mHMC are compared using multiple methods, such as enucleation efficiency, oxidative stress, embryo developmental competence, and gene expression. The results show no significant differences between techniques except in the enucleation efficiency. The 8-cell and 16-cell embryo developmental competence and Oct4 expression levels exhibit significant differences. However, the blastocyst rate is not significantly different between mHMC and SCNT. This study verifies that cloned embryos derived from the two techniques exhibit similar generation and developmental competence. Thus, we suggest that mHMC could replace SCNT for simpler and cheaper porcine cloning.