Improved cloning efficiency by chemically induced metabolic reprogramming of donor cells used for porcine somatic cell nuclear transfer

Abstract

The use of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) to create agricultural and biomedical models is extremely useful for understanding how we can improve the efficiency of production agriculture, as well as how we can better understand the progression of human diseases. Pigs are especially useful for these types of models because of their importance for meat production and their anatomical similarity to humans for the study of disease. Although SCNT is a reliable way to create these models, the efficiency of the process is very low. Since the first pigs created by SCNT were born almost 20 years ago, many attempts have been made in order to increase the efficiency of porcine SCNT with only marginal improvements. Particular focus has been placed on understanding the way in which the somatic nucleus used for the SCNT process can be better primed for remodeling and reprogramming. Metabolism has been shown in many studies to affect the pluripotency of cells, with a switch from anaerobic to aerobic metabolism coinciding with remodeling of the cellular genome and differentiation. The purpose of this literature review is to: 1) understand the previous attempts that have been made to improve SCNT efficiency, 2) highlight research that has allowed better understanding of stem cell qualities by assessing the similarities between cancer cells and embryonic cells, 3) evaluate the role that metabolism plays in the reprogramming of cells to a multipotent state, and 4) discover the capacity that the transcription factor, hypoxia inducible factor (HIF), has to modulate cellular metabolism.