In the mouse, embryo culture results in a characteristic phenotype of retarded embryo preimplantation development and reduced numbers of cells within embryos. The expression of TRP53 is central to the regulation of the cell's capacity to proliferate and survive. In this study we found that Trp53 mRNA is expressed throughout the preimplantation stage of development. Levels of TRP53 protein expre...

Cellular differentiation and multicellular development require the programmed expression of coregulated suites of genetic loci dispersed throughout the genome. How do functionally diverse loci come to share common regulatory motifs? A new paper finds that retrotransposons (RTEs) may play a role in providing common regulation to a group of functions expressed during the development of oocytes an...

The mechanisms regulating cell division during development of the mouse pre-implantation embryo are poorly understood. We have investigated whether bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling is involved in controlling cell cycle during mouse pre-implantation development. We mapped and quantitated the dynamic activities of BMP signaling through high-resolution immunofluorescence imaging combined...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Water channels, also named aquaporins (AQPs), play crucial roles in cellular water homeostasis. METHODS RT-PCR indicated the mRNA expression of AQPs 1-5, 7, 9, and 11-12, but not AQPs 0, 6, 8, and 10 in the 2∼8-cell stage human embryos. AQP3 and AQP7 were further analyzed for their mRNA expression and protein expression in the oocyte, zygote, 2-cell embryo, 4-cell embryo, 8-ce...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the outcome of frozen-thawed ET using embryos previously biopsied for preimplantation genetic diagnosis during a fresh ET cycle. DESIGN Prospective evaluation. SETTING Assisted reproductive biology program. PATIENT(S) A 31-year-old, G4, P1, TAB1, SAB2 carrier of a balanced RT 45,XX der(14;21)(q10;q10) translocation. INTERVENTION(S) Preimplantation genetic diagnosis...

Our studies show that retrogenes are preferentially expressed in preimplantation embryos. These genes carry a short noncoding exon 1 that contributes directly to expression of the gene, and a second exon that contains the coding sequence without intron interruption. We show that preimplantation gene expression is first regulated by developmentally regulated transcription factors that target exo...

Preimplantation embryo development follows a series of critical events. Remarkable epigenetic modifications and reprogramming of gene expression occur to activate the embryonic genome. In the early stages of preimplantation embryo development, maternal mRNAs direct embryonic development. Throughout early embryonic development, a differential methylation pattern is maintained although some show ...

Preimplantation diagnosis provides couples at high genetic risk the possibility of avoiding genetic disease without the need for prenatal diagnosis and selective abortion of the affected pregnancy. Following extensive background work on the reliability of genetic diagnosis in a single cell, we offered on a research basis preimplantation diagnosis to five couples at risk for offspring with the d...

A high rate of normal postimplantation development was achieved when the pronuclei of embryos from matings of DDK females with (CBA X C57BL/6J)F1 males were transplanted into enucleated embryos of non-DDK origin. This shows that the DDK egg cytoplasm, not the maternal pronucleus, is involved in the late preimplantation-lethal incompatibility.

BACKGROUND During human preimplantation development, early blastomeres are believed to be totipotent. It is likely, however, that blastomeres are allocated to a specific lineage prior to any morphological differentiation. NANOG, SOX2 and SALL4 are transcription factors that play a key role in controlling stemness in embryonic stem cells (ESC) and are therefore candidate markers for developmenta...