ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell Dev. Biol.
Sec. Molecular and Cellular Reproduction
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcell.2025.1628953
This article is part of the Research TopicUnlocking Fertility: Advances in Fertilization Research and Innovations in Assisted Reproductive TechnologiesView all articles
Activation of Telomerase via Madecassic acid Enhances the developmental competence of the SCNT-Derived Bovine Embryos
Provisionally accepted
Zaheer Haider1
Safeer Ullah1
Tahir Muhammad2
Chalani Dilshani Perera1
Muhammad Tayyab Khan1
Asif Jan3Seung-Eun Lee1
Seo-hyeon Lee1Sung Woo Kim4
Muhammad Idrees1*
Il-Keun KONG1*- 1Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, Republic of Korea
- 2University of toronto, Ontario, Canada
- 3University of Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan
- 4National Institute of Animal Science, Jinju, Republic of Korea
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Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is important in assisted reproductive technologies.However, its reprogramming efficiency remains low. A considerable drawback of SCNT-cloned embryos is the reduction in telomerase activity, which is crucial for DNA stability and genetic and epigenetic reprogramming. The present study aimed to examine the effects of madecassic acid (MA), a potent telomerase activator, on the developmental rate, embryonic genome activation, and implantation potential of SCNT-derived bovine embryos. The treatment of bovine signal cell-cloned zygotes with 3.0 µg/mL MA significantly increased embryo cleavage (71.5%) and blastocyst rate (28.1%) compared with that in non-treated (control) SCNT-cloned bovine embryos. In addition, MA treatment enhanced the bovine granulosa cells' telomerase activity and telomerase expression are assessed using qTRAP assay and ELISA. Of note, MA enhanced the expression of embryonic genome activation (EGA)-related genes including NFYA, Deleted: (cleavage and blastocyst) 32 Deleted: s 33 SP1, DPRX, GSC, CTNNB1, DUX, and ARGFX in MA-treated cloned embryos compared to the control group. Moreover, MA-treatment of cloned embryos showed substantially less DNA damage than the control SCNT embryos. Mechanistically, MA activation of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) significantly enhanced the nuclear localization of β-catenin and c-Myc and improved EGA. Reduction in the nuclear localization of this triose may be the leading cause of reduced EGA in cloned embryos. In conclusion, MA impacted the EGA reprogramming and development of cloned bovine embryos via probable activation of TERT. This telomerase activator may have the application of improving SCNT-cloned bovine embryos.
Keywords: SCNT, Art, Telomerase, in vitro embryo production (IVP), Madecassic acid (MA) Font: (Default) Times New Roman, 12 pt Font: (Default) Times New Roman, 12 pt
Received: 15 May 2025; Accepted: 27 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Haider, Ullah, Muhammad, Perera, Khan, Jan, Lee, Lee, Kim, Idrees and KONG. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Muhammad Idrees, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, Republic of Korea
Il-Keun KONG, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, Republic of Korea
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