Review of somatic cell nuclear transfer in pig

Abstract

It is now more than 8 years, since the first cloned pig from nuclear transfer was reported. Success of somatic
cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) in pig is still low compared to that in bovine. Embryonic and neonatal abnormalities
of cloned piglets are probably a result of incorrect or incomplete reprogramming of the transferred donor cell
nuclei. Recently, technical refinements have resulted in a considerable increase of SCNT efficiency. The current
level of efficiency is already sufficient for special purposes with high scientific and commercial impact including
xenotransplantation, generation of human disease models and for biomedical studies. In this paper, we review
current pig cloning methodologies for the technical and potential applications.