组蛋白精氨酸甲基化酶3对人体外培养发育阻滞胚胎的调控作用

The Role of Histone Arginine Methylase 3 on Human Developmental Block Embryos Cultured in Vitro

人IVF(in vitro fertilization)培养的胚胎常易发生发育阻滞,这极大地降低了IVF的治疗效率。近年来发现,组蛋白精氨酸甲基化酶3(PRMT3)在早期胚胎发育过程中起着重要的作用,但是其对阻滞胚胎发育的作用及机制仍不清楚。该研究利用IVF废弃的胚胎为实验材料。采用Q-PCR和Confocal检测早期不同发育时期胚胎中PRMT3的核酸和蛋白表达情况,以及H4R3me2a甲基化水平的变化情况。另外,在阻滞胚胎中过表达PRMT3蛋白,观察阻滞胚胎的进一步发育。研究结果表明,与正常发育胚胎相比,阻滞胚胎中PRMT3核酸和蛋白的表达均呈现显著下降(P<0.05);同时,阻滞胚胎中H4R3me2a的甲基化水平也明显降低(P<0.05)。过表达PRMT3蛋白能够挽救部分阻滞胚胎的发育,甚至个别阻滞胚胎还能够发育到囊胚阶段。总之,早期发育胚胎中PRMT3表达的降低或缺失可能是导致胚胎发育阻滞产生的主要原因之一,PRMT3是早期胚胎发育过程中必需且非常重要的关键因子。

Human embryos of IVF (in vitro fertilization) are often susceptible to developmental block,which greatly reduces the efficiency of IVF treatment.In recent years,it has been found that PRMT3 (protein arginine methylase 3) plays an important role in the process of early embryonic development,but its role and mechanism for blocking embryonic development are still unclear.In this study,the embryos discarded by IVF were used as experimental materials.Q-PCR and Confocal were used to detect PRMT3 nucleic acid and protein expression in early embryos at different developmental stages,as well as changes in the methylation levels of H4R3me2a.In addition,PRMT3 was overexpressed in the developmental block embryos to observe the further development of these embryos.Our results demonstrated that the nucleic acid and protein expression levels of PRMT3 in blocked embryos showed a significant decrease compared with normal embryos (P<0.05);meanwhile,the methylation levels of H4R3me2a in blocked embryos also decreased significantly (P<0.05).Over-expression of PRMT3 can rescue partially developmental block embryos,and even individual developmental blocked embryos can develop into blastocyst stage.In conclusion,the reduction or deletion of PRMT3 expression in early development embryos may be one of the main reasons leading to embryonic development block defects.PRMT3 is a necessary and very important key factor in the process of human early embryo development.