EMBRYO TECHNOLOGIES FOR PROPAGATION OF RHESUS MONKEYS

描述（由申请人提供）：本申请的总体目标是评估ART开发的重要方案，这些方案可以增强人类疾病NHP模型的传播。利用抗逆转录病毒技术从遗传上有价值的动物身上产生胚胎，可以促进从不孕症到退行性疾病等一系列与人类健康有关的研究。然而，目前国家卫生保健计划中基本的抗逆转录病毒治疗程序的状况很差，例如胚胎移植和同卵双胞胎的产生。很少有研究致力于改进这些程序。拟议的研究将使用标准的体外受精和胚胎培养方案从恒河猴中常规产生胚胎，以评估几种不同的技术方法，以改善用于健康相关研究的动物生产。本资源开发申请的目的是评估：1)将胚胎移植给受体雌性的策略（胚胎的数量和阶段），以提高后代的成功率；2)猕猴跨物种胚胎移植，以促进子宫内移植；3)卵裂球分离或胚胎分裂产生同卵双胞胎的简单方法的有效性；4)通过超排卵和子宫冲洗在体内产生多个胚胎的程序，从而避免在体外培养产生的胚胎可能产生的伪影；5)植入前遗传学诊断作为胚胎移植前选择具有特定遗传特征的猕猴胚胎的工具，作为提高抗逆转录病毒技术繁殖遗传价值动物的效率的手段。通过结合这些技术，研究人员将提高NHPs在健康相关研究中的功效和效用，增加具有遗传价值的动物的繁殖力，并提高在培育NHPs时选择特定遗传特征的能力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall goal of this application is to evaluate protocols important for the exploitation of ART that can enhance the propagation of NHP models of human disease. The use of ART to produce embryos from genetically valuable animals can contribute to a wide range of studies related to human health, from infertility to degenerative diseases. However, the current state of basic ART procedures in NHPs, such as embryo transfer and production of identical twins, is poor. Few studies have been devoted to improving these procedures. The proposed research will routinely produce embryos from rhesus monkeys using standard in vitro fertilization and embryo culture protocols in order to evaluate several different technical approaches to improve the production of animals for health related research. The aims of this resource development application are to evaluate: 1) strategies (number and stage of embryos) for transferring embryos to recipient females, in order to improve the success rate in producing offspring; 2) cross-species embryo transfer in macaques, in order to facilitate intra-uterine transfers; 3) the effectiveness of simple methods of blastomere separation or embryo splitting to produce identical twins; 4) a procedure for producing multiple embryos in vivo by superovulation and uterine flushing, thus avoiding possible artifacts from culturing in vitro produced embryos; and 5) preimplantation genetic diagnosis as a tool for selecting macaque embryos with specific genetic characteristics prior to embryo transfer, as a means to increase the efficiency of ART for propagating genetically valuable animals. By combining several of these technologies, the investigators will enhance the efficacy and utility of NHPs for health-related research, increase the fecundity of genetically-valuable animals, and improve the ability to select for specific genetic characteristics when breeding NHPs.