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SUMMARY OCT4 is a well-established regulator of pluripotency and nuclear reprogramming. To determine if improving OCT4 abundance can facilitate oocyte-mediated reprogramming in cloned porcine embryos, we artificially increased OCT4 levels by co-incubating donor cells with 50 ng/µl OCT4 plasmid. We observed higher rates of blastocyst formation (P

Until now, the efficiency of animal cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) has remained low. Efforts to improve cloning efficiency have demonstrated a positive role of trichostatin A (TSA), an inhibitor of deacetylases, on the development of nuclear transfer (NT) embryos in many species. Here, we report the effects of TSA on pre-implantation development of porcine NT embryos. Our results showed that treatment of reconstructed porcine embryos with 50 nmol/L TSA for 24 h after activation significantly improved the production of blastocysts (P < 0.05), while treating donor cells with the same solution resulted in increases in cleavage rates and blastomere numbers (P < 0.05). However, TSA treatment of both donor cells and SCNT embryos did not improve blastocyst production, nor did it increase blastomere numbers. Using indirect immunofluorescence, we found that TSA treatment of NT embryos could improve the reprogramming of histone acetylation at lysine 9 of histone 3 (H3K9) and affect nuclear swelling of transferred nuclei. However, no apparent effect of TSA treatment on H3K9 dimethylation (H3K9me2) was observed. These findings suggest a positive effect of TSA treatment (either treating NT embryos or donor cells) on the development of porcine NT embryos, which is achieved by improving epigenetic reprogramming.