The histone deacetylase inhibitor scriptaid enhances nascent mRNA production and rescues full-term development in cloned inbred mice.

Since the birth of Cumulina, the first mouse clone produced by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), the success rate of cloning in mice has been extremely low compared with other species and most of the inbred mouse strains have never been cloned. Recently, our laboratory has found that treatment of SCNT mouse embryos with trichostatin A, a histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi), improved the full-term development of B6D2F1 mouse clones significantly. However, this was not effective for the inbred strains. Here, we show for the first time that by treating SCNT embryos with another HDACi, scriptaid, all the important inbred mouse strains can be cloned, such as C57BL/6, C3H/He, DBA/2, and 129/Sv. Moreover, the success of somatic nuclear reprogramming and cloning efficiency via nuclear transfer technique is clearly linked to the competent de novo synthesis of nascent mRNA in cloned mouse embryos.