The role of protein arginine methyltransferase 7 in human developmentally arrested embryos cultured in vitro

• 作者: Wuwen Zhang Shifeng Li Kai Li Li Li Ping Yin Guoqing Tong
• 来源期刊: 生物化学与生物物理学报（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2021,（7）
• 所属期刊栏目: Original Articles
• 页码范围: 925-932
• 页数: 8页
• 语种: 英文
• DOI: 10.1093/abbs/gmab068

摘要

Human embryos of in vitro fertilization (IVF) are often susceptible to developmental arrest,which greatly reduces the efficiency of IVF treatment.In recent years,it has been found that protein argi-nine methyltransferase 7 (PRMT7) plays an important role in the process of early embryonic devel-opment.However,not much is known about the relationship between PRMT7 and developmentally arrested embryos.The role of PRMT7 in developmentally arrested embryos was thus investigated in this study.Discarded human embryos from IVF were collected for experimental materials.Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and confocal analyses were used to identify PRMT7 mRNA and protein levels in early embryos at different developmental stages,as well as changes in the methylation levels of H4R3me2s.Additionally,PRMT7 was knocked down in the developmentally arrested embryos to observe the further development of these embryos.Our results demonstrated that PRMT7 mRNA and protein levels in arrested embryos were significantly increased compared with those in control embryos;meanwhile,the methylation levels of H4R3me2s in arrested embryos were also increased significantly.Knockdown of PRMT7 could rescue partially developmentally arrested embryos,and even individual developmentally arrested embryos could develop into blastocysts.In conclusion,over-expression of PRMT7 dis-rupts the early embryo development process,leading to early embryos developmental arrest,but these developmentally arrested defects could be partially rescued by knockdown of the PRMr7 protein.