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Inadequate supply of protein building blocks may explain pregnancy failures in bovine cloning experiments

Date:
October 26, 2011
Source:
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., Publishers
Summary:
Amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, are essential to support the normal growth of a developing embryo and the placenta. An insufficient supply of amino acids in the mother’s uterus caused by abnormal maternal-embryo interactions may explain the developmental abnormalities and complications of pregnancy that result in the death of cloned bovine embryos, according to a new article.
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Amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, are essential to support the normal growth of a developing embryo and the placenta. An insufficient supply of amino acids in the mother's uterus caused by abnormal maternal-embryo interactions may explain the developmental abnormalities and complications of pregnancy that result in the death of cloned bovine embryos, according to a new article in the peer-reviewed journal Cellular Reprogramming published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

Anna Groebner, Technische Universitaet Muenchen (Freising, Germany), and colleagues from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (Muenchen, Germany), Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority (Oberschleissheim, Germany), and Bavarian State Institute for Agriculture (Grub, Germany), describe an experiment in which they compared the amino acid concentrations in the uterine contents from pregnant cows carrying embryos created either by in vitro fertilization (IVF) or by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). In SCNT an adult animal is cloned by transferring the DNA-containing nucleus from one of its cells into a donor egg that lacks a nucleus, and then implanting the cloned embryo into the uterus of a recipient mother. Severe placental and development abnormalities are not uncommon.

The authors show that the concentrations of several amino acids were reduced in samples from SCNT pregnancies compared to IVF pregnancies during the period preceding implantation of the embryos in the uterine lining. They report these findings and comment on their implications in the article entitled "Reduced Amino Acids in the Bovine Uterine Lumen of Cloned versus In Vitro Fertilized Pregnancies Prior to Implantation."

"These results reveal that cloned embryos are sometimes unable to establish a normal relationship with the maternal environment. This important new insight highlights the importance and potential benefit of research to understand the mechanisms that are involved," says Professor Sir Ian Wilmut, OBE, FRS, FRSE, Editor-in-Chief of Cellular Reprogramming and director of the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Edinburgh.


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Materials provided by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., Publishers. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Anna E. Groebner, Valeri Zakhartchenko, Stefan Bauersachs, Isabel Rubio-Aliaga, Hannelore Daniel, Mathias Büttner, Horst D. Reichenbach, Heinrich H.D. Meyer, Eckhard Wolf, Susanne E. Ulbrich. Reduced Amino Acids in the Bovine Uterine Lumen of Cloned versusIn VitroFertilized Pregnancies Prior to Implantation. Cellular Reprogramming, 2011; 110720121029001 DOI: 10.1089/cell.2011.0006

Cite This Page:

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., Publishers. "Inadequate supply of protein building blocks may explain pregnancy failures in bovine cloning experiments." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 26 October 2011. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111026113646.htm>.
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., Publishers. (2011, October 26). Inadequate supply of protein building blocks may explain pregnancy failures in bovine cloning experiments. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 30, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111026113646.htm
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., Publishers. "Inadequate supply of protein building blocks may explain pregnancy failures in bovine cloning experiments." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111026113646.htm (accessed October 30, 2024).

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