Factors affecting the efficiency of nuclear transfer (NT) in rabbits were examined in the present study. When 100 V mm-1 of pulse strength and 15 μs of pulse duration were employed, 3 and 4 electronic pulses resulted in significantly more cytoplasts fused with donor cells compared with 2 electronic pulses (P 0.05). When the duration and number of electronic pulse were fixed at 15 μs and 3 times, increase of pulse intensity from 100 V mm-1 to 150 V mm-1 and 200 V mm-1 resulted in a significantly decrease in the cleavage rate of reconstructed embryos (P 0.05). Significantly more reconstructed embryos cleaved and developed to blastocysts when they were derived from donor embryos at the 8-16-cell stage, in comparison with the reconstructed embryos derived from donor embryos at the compact morula stage (P 0.05). Activation of cytoplasts prior to fusion increased the cleavage rate (P < 0.05) and blastocyst development (P < 0.05) of reconstructed embryos, but decreased the fusion rate (P < 0.05) compared with cytoplasts activated post fusion. More reconstructed embryos developed to blastocysts when they were cultured in TCM + 3% OCS at the first 48 h and then cultured in TCM199 + 10% FCS, in comparison with the reconstructed embryos cultured in either TCM199 + 10% FCS or TCM199 + 3% OCS (P < 0.05). When 22 NT embryos were transferred into the oviducts of one recipient rabbit, one recipient rabbit delivered a female rabbit at 34 days of gestation. In conclusion, either electrofusion parameter or developmental stage of donor embryos have a significant effect on the efficiency of NT, NT embryos require different concentration of serum at their different development stages.
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