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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Cell Dev. Biol.

Sec. Embryonic Development

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcell.2025.1643551

This article is part of the Research TopicEditors' Showcase 2024: Insights in Embryonic DevelopmentView all 9 articles

Screening for Novel Factors Involved in Mouse Early Embryonic Development Using Inhibitor Libraries

Provisionally accepted
  • Kanazawa Medical University, Uchinada, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Mammalian early embryonic development is regulated by numerous factors, yet not all have been identified. Although omics approaches such as next-generation sequencing and proteomics provide powerful tools, screening methods using inhibitor libraries remain highly effective for identifying novel factors involved in embryonic development. To this end, we developed a novel screening system that combines ultra-superovulation technology with one-cell stage embryos cryopreservation in mice. Using this system, we screened 95 inhibitors to identify factors essential for the development of mouse fertilized eggs and identified 16 factors, including 5 previously known ones. Among the known factors, two were ATPases, and our data confirmed that inhibition of different ATPase types arrested embryonic development at distinct stages. In addition, we discovered novel regulators affecting various developmental stages, including a p53 activator (PRIMA-1), cathepsin D, CXCR2, and potassium channels (SK2 and SK3). Genome editing experiments involving knockout of the cathepsin D and CXCR2 genes further verified the arrest of embryonic development. These results demonstrate that our developed screening method can effectively identify novel factors involved in embryonic development. Application of this approach to additional inhibitor libraries and other species may facilitate the discovery of further species-specific regulators of early embryonic development.

Keywords: Early embryonic development, Inhibitor library screening, mouse embryo, Embryonic regulatory factors, Cathepsin D, CXCR2

Received: 09 Jun 2025; Accepted: 02 Oct 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Nishizono. 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: Hirofumi Nishizono, hirofumi@kanazawa-med.ac.jp

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