Cohesin is implicated in establishing and maintaining pluripotency. Whether this is because of essential cohesin functions in the cell cycle or in gene regulation is unknown. Here we tested cohesin's contribution to reprogramming in systems that reactivate the expression of pluripotency genes in the absence of proliferation (embryonic stem [ES] cell heterokaryons) or DNA replication (nuclear tr...

Recent results in animal cloning have demonstrated that the events of cell differentiation can be reversed. This reversal necessarily requires genetic reprogramming of the transplanted nucleus. It has emerged from review articles that synthesis of nuclear and ribosomal RNA is blocked after fusion independently of cell cycle stage of the transferred nucleus, and that the cytoplasm condition of t...

Reprogramming of somatic cells to a pluripotent embryonic stem cell-like state has been achieved by nuclear transplantation of a somatic nucleus into an enucleated egg and most recently by introducing defined transcription factors into somatic cells. Nuclear reprogramming is of great medical interest, as it has the potential to generate a source of patient-specific cells. Here, we review strate...

Nuclear reprogramming of somatic cells can be induced by oocyte factors. Despite numerous attempts, the factors responsible for successful nuclear reprogramming remain elusive. In the present study, we found that porcine oocytes with the first polar body collected at 42 h of in vitro maturation had a stronger ability to support early development of cloned embryos than porcine oocytes with the f...

The low efficiency observed in cloning by nuclear transfer is related to an aberrant gene expression following errors in epigenetic reprogramming. Recent studies have focused on further understanding of the modifications that take place in the chromatin of embryos during the preimplantation period, through the use of chromatin modifying agents. The goal of these studies is to identify the facto...

Mammalian development begins with fertilization of an oocyte by the sperm followed by genome-wide epigenetic reprogramming. This involves de novo establishment of chromatin domains, including the formation of pericentric heterochromatin. We dissected the spatiotemporal kinetics of the first acquisition of heterochromatic signatures of pericentromeric chromatin and found that the heterochromatic...

During embryonic development, cells in an uncommitted pluripotent state undergo progressive epigenetic changes that lock them into a final restrictive differentiated state. However, recent advances have shown that not only is it possible for a fully differentiated cell to revert back to a pluripotent state, a process called nuclear reprogramming, but also that differentiated cells can be direct...

BACKGROUND Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) requires cytoplast-mediated reprogramming of the donor nucleus. Cytoplast factors such as maturation promoting factor are implicated based on their involvement in nuclear envelope breakdown (NEBD) and premature chromosome condensation (PCC). Given prior difficulties in SCNT in primates using conventional protocols, we hypothesized that the ability...

Epiblast stem cells (EpiSCs) in mice and rats are primed pluripotent stem cells (PSCs). They barely contribute to chimeric embryos when injected into blastocysts. Reprogramming of EpiSCs to embryonic stem cell (ESC)-like cells (rESCs) may occur in response to LIF-STAT3 signaling; however, low reprogramming efficiency hampers potential use of rESCs in generating chimeras. Here, we describe drama...

Reprogramming of human somatic cells to induce pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) generates valuable precursors for disease modeling and regenerative medicine. However, the reprogramming process can be inefficient and noisy, creating many partially reprogrammed cells in addition to fully reprogrammed iPSCs. To address these shortcomings, we developed a micropatterned substrate that allows for dynam...