Developmental and Degenerative Characterization of Porcine Parthenogenetic Fetuses during Early Pregnancy

Simple Summary To increase the early implantation rate, oocytes and zygotes have been subjected to various artificial stimulations before and/or after in vitro fertilization, nuclear transfer, or sperm (spermatid) injection, etc. However, the stimulation process may induce parthenogenetic development. It is difficult to identify whether the embryo or fetus is normally fertilized or parthenogenetically activated in early pregnancy. In the present study, the porcine parthenotes originated from electric stimulation implanted and developed normally during the first month, in a manner similar to artificially inseminated embryos and fetuses. There were no statistical differences in the formation of the major organs such as the brain, liver, kidney, or heart in both groups. However, the implanted parthenotes radically ceased their development and degenerated after one month. It can be postulated that the parthenotes are one of the reasons for the gap between early pregnancy and delivery rate in assisted reproduction techniques. Abstract The difference between early pregnancy and delivery rate is quite large in assisted reproduction techniques (ARTs), including animal cloning. However, it is not clear why the implanted fetuses aborted after the early pregnancy stage. In the present study, we tried to evaluate the developmental and morphological characteristics of porcine parthenogenetically activated (PA) embryos or fetuses by electric stimulation during the early pregnancy period. The implanted PA and artificially inseminated (AI) embryos and fetuses were collected at day 26 and 35 after embryo transfer, respectively. The developmental and morphological parameters in the PA embryos at day 26 were similar to the AI embryos. The size, weight, formation of major organs, and apoptotic cells were not statistically different in both embryos at day 26. However, the PA fetuses at day 35 showed ceased fetal development and degenerated with abnormal morphologies in their organs. The day 35 PA fetuses showed significantly higher apoptotic cells and lower methylation status in three differentially methylated regions of the H19 gene compared to their comparators. Therefore, the normal development of PA embryos and fetuses during early gestation could lead to these pregnancies being misinterpreted as normal and become one of the main reasons for the gap between early pregnancy and delivery rate.