<![CDATA[This study was conducted to examine the occurrence of nuclear remodeling (nucleus swelling) and its effectson the subsequent in vitro development of bovine embryos reconstructed by serum-starved and serum-fed somaticcells. Results from this study demonstrated that all of the reconstructed embryos that received serum-starved andserum-fed somatic cells exhibited condensed-nuclei. More than 90% of the transferred nuclei exhibited nuclearenvelope breakdown and premature chromatin condensation which clearly distinct from an intact nucleus. Therewas no significant difference on the degree of nucleus swelling in SS-NT embryos or SF-NT embryos, indicatingthat either serum-starved or confluent somatic cell lines could be reprogrammed by the recipient cytoplasmenvironments in similar pattern. Although the fusion rate was not significantly different among the groups, theproportion of SS-NT embryos which developed to the 2- to 4-cell stage (89.7%) and to the 8- to 16-cell stage (74.7%)was significantly higher than that of SF-NT embryos. Whereas, the proportion of reconstructed embryos thatdeveloped to the morula and blastocyst stages were not significantly different among the groups. Results of thesestudies demonstrate that reconstructed embryos, which received either serum-starved or serum-fed confluentsomatic cells, showed similar developmental competence to the blastocyst stage.Keywords: nuclear transplantation technique-somatic cells-nucleus swelling]]>
