Reproductive Fertility of Cloned Male Cats Derived from Adult Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the reproductive fertility by the natural breeding of cloned male cats with domestic female cats, and to measure endocrine hormone concentration related to male reproduction such as testosterone, leutinizing hormone (LH), and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). Cloned A, B, C, and D cats produced three, two, four, and five kittens after natural mating with four domestic female cats, respectively, despite later puberty of the cloned D cat than those of the other cloned male cats. Three of the 14 kittens expressed an odd eye color, which was produced by 1 and 2 from cloned A and B cats. The eye color of the other F1 kittens varied from nine brown to two blue. Body weight at birth ranged from 72.9 to 134.0 g. Although clone D had a poorer libido and entered puberty later than those of the other cloned male cats, he produced gonadal hormones within the average range. Four of the cloned male cats had normal fertility. The concentration of gonadal hormones in cloned male cats was similar to two control and donor cats. The concentration of testosterone was not significantly different among clones A, B, C, D, and control cats (5.99 +/- 5.68; 3.46 +/- 2.81; 6.41 +/- 2.17; 3.75 +/- 0.34; 4.0 +/- 3.63 ng/mL, p < 0.05). The concentrations of LH and FSH were not significantly different among the cloned cats (p < 0.05). Seven male and seven female (in total 14) kittens were produced by the natural breeding with four domestic female cats. These results indicated that cloned male cats have normal reproductive fertility and lie within the normal range of gonadal hormone production. All F1 kittens were produced by natural breeding and delivery, and are still alive and have normal growth health (27 months age).

Serum Levels of Reproductive Hormones and Ultrasonographic Monitoring of Ovarian Follicles in Female Cloned Dogs

“…In canids, SCNT has been applied not only to the cloning of companion dogs [12,13,16] but also to the preservation of endangered canine species [14,18]. In some species, cloned offspring produced by SCNT have been reported to show normal reproductive characteristics and successfully produce progeny by natural mating [1,2,6,7,21]. To our knowledge, however, there are no studies on the reproductive characteristics of cloned dogs.…”

“…, Hyun Ju OH 1) , Jung Eun PARK 1) , Jung Taek KANG 1) , Min Jung KIM 1) , Jung Hee YOON 2) , Jin Hwa CHANG 2) , Min Kyu KIM 3) , Goo JANG 1) and Byeong Chun LEE 1) Cloning technology using somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) provides valuable opportunities for the fields of biomedical science, agriculture and preservation of endangered animals [2,6,17]. In canids, SCNT has been applied not only to the cloning of companion dogs [12,13,16] but also to the preservation of endangered canine species [14,18].…”

Reproductive ability of a cloned male detector dog and behavioral traits of its offspring

“…We examined the reproductive ability of a male cloned dog and the behavioral traits of his offspring. Several previous studies reported that cloned animals had normal reproductive ability [ 3 5 18 ]. In this study, ten healthy puppies were produced by natural mating between a cloned male dog and a normal female dog in the DDTC.…”

Development of New Stem Cell‐based Technologies for Carnivore Reproduction Research

“…Since successful cloning was first reported in cats (Shin et al 2002), the SCNT technology has been applied to African Wildcats (Gomez et al 2004), and has received much study. Indeed, feline SCNT has advanced to the point where second generation clones have been produced (Yin et al 2008b), and the fertility of cloned individuals by normal mating has been documented (Choi et al 2007). However, despite this progress, feline SCNT remains a relatively low-yield, labour and cost-intensive process.…”

“…Indeed, feline SCNT has advanced to the point where second generation clones have been produced (Yin et al. 2008b), and the fertility of cloned individuals by normal mating has been documented (Choi et al. 2007).…”