2. Academic Validation
  3. Tracing and Capturing the Epiblast Pluripotency of Sheep Preimplantation Embryos

Tracing and Capturing the Epiblast Pluripotency of Sheep Preimplantation Embryos

  • Adv Sci (Weinh). 2025 Jun 30:e17764. doi: 10.1002/advs.202417764.
Jinying Zhang 1,  Runbo Li 1,  Ruijie Luo 2,  Qiang Zhang 3,  Zimo Zhao 1,  Haishen Xu 1,  Minglei Zhi 1,  Wenjie Jiang 4,  Meng Wang 1,  Xinze Chen 1,  Zhiqiang Feng 1,  Yingjie Wang 1,  Yuhan Yang 1,  Pengcheng He 1,  Hanyue Su 2,  Tianzhi Chen 1,  Shunxin Wang 1,  Yixuan Yao 1,  Jinghui Yang 2,  Fan Zhao 2,  Tingting Li 5,  Haitao Wang 5,  Xiaosheng Zhang 6,  Jinlong Zhang 6,  Qiuyue Liu 5,  Shuai Gao 7,  Yuchang Yao 4,  Jianyong Han 1,  Suying Cao 2
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding, Frontiers Science Center for Molecular Design Breeding (MOE), College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China.
  • 2 Animal Science and Technology College, Beijing University of Agriculture, Beijing, 102206, China.
  • 3 Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Xiamen Cardiovascular Hospital, School of Medicine, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361006, China.
  • 4 College of Animal Science and Technology, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, 150038, China.
  • 5 State Key Laboratory of Molecular Developmental Biology, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
  • 6 Institute of Animal Sciences and Veterinary, Tianjin Academy of Agriculture Sciences, Tianjin, 300380, China.
  • 7 State Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding, Frontiers Science Center for Molecular Design Breeding (MOE), College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China.
PMID: 40586282 DOI: 10.1002/advs.202417764
Abstract

Capturing different pluripotent state stem cells from epiblast in vitro helps understand embryonic development and provides invaluable cell sources for basic research and regenerative medicine. Sheep are not only one of the most important livestock species in agriculture but also serve as an ideal preclinical model for studying human disease. Single-cell transcriptome analysis of sheep preimplantation embryos from embryonic day (E) 1 to E14 is performed to investigate the pluripotency changes of epiblast and elucidate the pluripotent regulation signaling. By combination of growth factors or inhibitors of JAK/STAT3, FGF, Wnt, and TGF-β pathways in the culture medium, sheep formative and primed pluripotent stem cells (sfPSCs and spPSCs) are established respectively. The newly derived PSCs could maintain over 100 passages and differentiate into three germ layers. In addition, sfPSCs and spPSCs exhibit different molecular features, and sfPSCs have the ability of contribution to ICM and can be used as donor cells for producing cloned embryos efficiently. A cross-species comparison of early embryo development in mouse, pig and sheep illustrates the conservation of the epiblast naïve to primed state transition process and the divergence of the developmental events time points, the specific gene expression patterns and pluripotent regulation signaling. These studies are expected to improve our understanding of mammal early embryo development and present a reference for defining pluripotency.

Keywords

embryo development; epiblast; pluripotency; sheep; single‐cell RNA seq.

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