Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Animal Reproduction Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/anireprosci Effects of abundances of OCT-4 mRNA transcript on goat pre- implantation embryonic development Azadeh Naddafpour a,b , Faezeh Ghazvini Zadegan a , Mehdi Hajian a , Sayyed Morteza Hosseini a , Farnoosh Jafarpour a , Mohsen Rahimi a , Razieh Habibi a,b , Mohammad Hossein Nasr Esfahani a, * a Department of Reproductive Biotechnology, Reproductive Biomedicine Research Center, Royan Institute for Biotechnology, ACECR, Isfahan, Iran b Department of Biology, University of Science and Culture, Tehran, Iran ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Blastocyst OCT-4 Down-regulation Goat embryo Early development ABSTRACT Unlike in mice, the function of pluripotent markers in early embryonic development of domestic animals remains to be elucidated and this may account for the failure to establish embryonic stem cell lines for these species. To study the functions of the OCT-4 protein which has important actions in maintenance of pluripotent and self-renewal processes during early embryonic de- velopment, there was induced reduction in relative abundance of OCT-4 mRNA transcript during goat early embryonic development by using RNA interference techniques. The injection of OCT-4 siRNA into goat IVF presumptive zygotes resulted in a decrease in the relative abundance of OCT- 4 mRNA transcript; however, there was development of these embryos to the blastocyst stage at the same rate as there was in the control group. The blastocysts from the treated groups had a similar number of TE, ICM, and total cells compared to those from the control group. Although there was a greater relative abundance of NANOG, REX1, and CDX2 mRNA transcript in the embryos injected with siRNA at the 8–16 cell stage, the relative transcript abundances were similar for the control and treatment groups at the blastocyst stage. The relative abundance of SOX2 mRNA transcript was similar for the treatment and control group. It, therefore, is con- cluded that inhibition of abundances of OCT-4 mRNA transcript to about 20 % of that of the untreated control group did not affect blastocyst formation rate in goats. The functions of OCT-4 in maintaining ICM and TE integrity, however, remains to be assessed. 1. Introduction There have been extensive efforts in identifying signaling mechanisms of early embryonic development in mice and humans in an effort to enhance understanding of early embryonic development and efficient derivation of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in these https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anireprosci.2020.106286 Received 14 July 2019; Received in revised form 18 December 2019; Accepted 16 January 2020 Abbreviations: BSA, Bovine serum albumin; COCs, Cumulus oocyte complexes; CT, Cycle threshold; EGF, Epidermal growth factor; ESCs, Embryonic stem cells; FBS, Fetal bovine serum; FSH, Follicle-stimulating hormone; H-TCM, Hepes-buffered tissue culture medium199; ICM, Inner cell mass; IGF1, insulin-like growth factor 1; (iPSCs), Induces pluripotent stem cells; IU, International unit; IVF, In vitro fertilization; KD, knock down; LH, luteinizing hormone; MII, Metaphase II oocyte; mL, Mili liter; MM, Maturation medium; mm, mili meter; mSOF, modified synthetic oviductal fluid; Rpm, Round per minute; SCR, Scrambled; siRNA, short interfering RNAs; TCM199, Tissue culture medium199; TE, Trophectoderm; TF, Transcription factor ⁎ Corresponding Author at: Royan institute for biotechnology, Royan St., Salman St., Khorasgan, Jey St., Isfahan, 8159358686, Iran. E-mail address: mh.nasr-esfahani@royaninstitute.org (M.H. Nasr Esfahani). Animal Reproduction Science 215 (2020) 106286 Available online 01 February 2020 0378-4320/ © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. T