Effect of primary culture medium type for culture of canine fibroblasts on production of cloned dogs

Fibroblasts are common source of donor cells for SCNT. It is suggested that donor cells' microenvironment, including the primary culture, affects development of reconstructed embryos. To prove this, canine embryos were cloned with fibroblasts that were cultured in two different primary media (RCMEp vs. Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium [DMEM]) and in vivo developments were compared with relative amount of stemness, reprogramming, apoptosis gene transcripts, and telomerase activity. Donor cells cultured in RCMEp contained a significantly higher amount of SOX2, NANOG, DPPA2, REXO1, HDAC, DNMT1, MECP2 and telomerase activity than those cultured in DMEM (P < 0.05). In vivo developmental potential of cloned embryos with donor cells cultured in RCMEp had a higher birth rate than that of embryos derived from DMEM (P < 0.05). The culture medium can induce changes in gene expression of donor cells and telomerase activity, and these alterations can also affect in vivo developmental competence of the cloned embryos.