Previous studies by others and ourselves have suggested that the methylation pattern of imprinted genes in oocytes is altered during postovulatory aging. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of postovulatory aging of mouse oocytes on methylation and expression of imprinted genes at the mid-gestation development stages. Proestrous females were artificially inseminated at ...

In vitro manipulation of preimplantation mammalian embryos can influence differentiation and growth at later stages of development. In the mouse, culture of embryonic stem (ES) cells affects their totipotency and may give rise to fetal abnormalities. To investigate whether this is associated with epigenetic alterations in imprinted genes, we analysed two maternally expressed genes (Igf2r, H19) ...

To comparatively analyze the human microRNA (miRNA) profiles between spontaneous decidualized menstrual endometrium and early pregnancy decidua by an in-depth sequencing of miRNAs. The specific miRNAs expressed at conception might be involved in pregnancy establishment and expression of let-7f-5p and let-7g-5p was experimentally up-regulated or inhibited to assess the effect on the expression o...

Parthenogenetic embryos, which contained one genome from a neonate-derived non-growing oocyte and the other from a fully grown oocyte, developed to day 13.5 of gestation in mice, 3 days longer than previously recorded for parthenogenetic development. To investigate the hypothesis that disruption of primary imprinting during oocyte growth leads to the modified expression of imprinted genes and t...

functions (Table 1 and http://www.mgu.har.mrc.ac.uk/ Introduction anomaly/anomaly.html). From this list two themes emerge. The genetic nonequivalence of the mammalian maternal Particularly striking is the number of imprinted genes and paternal genomes, uncovered by the elegant pronuthat act in the fetal growth pathway mediated by insulinclear transplantation studies in the 1980s (McGrath and li...

Feed restriction of primiparous sows during the last week of lactation has been shown to decrease embryonic growth and female embryo survival to Day 30 of gestation. This study sought to determine whether global DNA methylation and epigenetic gene expression of the candidate genes Igf2, Igf2r, and Xist were associated with these treatment effects. Given that these epigenetic traits are expected...

Sodium butyrate induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in bovine kidney epithelial cells primarily via downregulating cell cycle-related gene expression and enhancing expression of pro-apoptotic genes. The insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system plays an essential role in these processes. Understanding of regulation of insulin-like growth factor binding proteins (IGFBPs) by butyrate helps reve...