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对于ART开发的重要协议，这些协议可以增强NHP人类疾病模型的传播。利用ART技术从具有遗传价值的动物中生产胚胎，可以为从不孕不育到退行性疾病等与人类健康相关的广泛研究做出贡献。然而，目前国家卫生保健计划的基本技术程序，如胚胎移植和生产同卵双胞胎，状况很差。很少有研究致力于改进这些程序。这项拟议的研究将使用标准的体外受精和胚胎培养方案常规生产猕猴胚胎，以评估几种不同的技术方法，以提高动物产量，用于与健康相关的研究。这一资源开发应用的目的是评估：1)将胚胎移植到受体雌性动物的策略(胚胎的数量和阶段)，以提高生育后代的成功率；2)猕猴的跨物种胚胎移植，以促进子宫内移植；3)简单的卵裂球分离或胚胎分裂方法的有效性，以产生同卵双胞胎；4)通过超数排卵和子宫冲洗在体内产生多个胚胎的程序，从而避免体外培养产生的胚胎可能产生的假象；5)植入前遗传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ART在繁殖具有遗传价值的动物方面的效率的手段。通过结合这些技术中的几种，研究人员将提高NHP对健康相关研究的效力和效用，增加具有遗传价值的动物的繁殖力，并提高在培育NHP时针对特定遗传特征进行选择的能力。

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.