Fig 6. Model for the potential mechanisms of TSA and BIX-01294-induced the enhanced developmental efficiency of SCNT embryos.

Histone deacetylases and methyltransferase inhibitor (TSA and BIX-01294) synergistically reduce the expression levels of H3K9me2 and 5mC in SCNT 4-cell and blastocysts which could indirectly promote the increased expression of OCT4 and CDX2 important for both inner cell mass (ICM) and trophectoderm (TE) lineage differentiation. Based on these data, we propose that TSA and BIX-01294 enhance blastocyst formation rate of porcine SCNT embryos potentially through facilitating the increased expression of OCT4 and CDX2 involved in the differentiation of ICM and TE lineage. Solid and dash lines indicate the proven and putative results in the present study, respectively.