High Pathological Reproducibility of Diet-induced Atherosclerosis in Microminipigs via Cloning Technology

Background/Aim: The reproducibility of atherosclerotic lesions was evaluated after the production of clonedmicrominipigs and their offspring. Materials and Methods: Cloned-microminipig-parents were produced by microminipigsomatic cell nuclei. These parents were crossbred and delivered males (F1-offspring) were divided into two groups: normal chow diet (NcD)-fed and high-fat/high-cholesterol diet (HcD)-fed groups. One of the F1-offsprings was subjected to cloning, and delivered males (F1-clones) were fed with HcD. After 8 weeks, all animals were necropsied for pathophysiological studies compared to non-cloned-microminipigs. Results: HcD-fed F1-offspring and F1-clones, but not NcDfed F1-offspring, exhibited increased serum lipid levels and systemic atherosclerosis, which were comparable to those of HcD-fed non-cloned-microminipigs. Homogeneity of variance analysis demonstrated that standard deviation values of serum lipoprotein and aortic atherosclerosis area from HcD-fed animals decreased in F1-offspring and F1-clones. Conclusion: HcD-induced atherogenesis was highly reproducible in F1 offsprings and F1-clones, indicating that the atherosclerosis prone genomic background was preserved in the clonedmicrominipigs, which can be used for studies on human atherosclerosis and related diseases.

Automated summary

The study found that F1 offspring and F1 clones fed with HcD showed similar results in serum lipid levels and systemic atherosclerosis to HcD-fed non-cloned microminipigs, indicating high reproducibility in atherogenesis.