Survival and cell death signals are crucial for mammalian embryo preimplantation development. However, the knowledge on the molecular mechanisms underlying their regulation is still limited. Mouse studies are widely used to understand preimplantation embryo development, but extrapolation of these results to humans is questionable. Therefore, we wanted to analyse the global expression profiles during early mouse and human development with a special focus on genes involved in the regulation of the apoptotic and survival pathways. We used DNA microarray technology to analyse the global gene expression profiles of preimplantation human and mouse embryos (metaphase II oocytes, embryos at the embryonic genome activation stage, and blastocysts). Components of the major apoptotic and survival signalling pathways were expressed during early human and mouse embryonic development; however, most expression profiles were species-specific. Particularly, the expression of genes encoding components and regulators of the apoptotic machinery were extremely stable in mouse embryos at all analysed stages, while it was more stage-specific in human embryos.CASP3,CASP9, andAIFwere the only apoptosis-related genes expressed in both species and at all studied stages. Moreover, numerous transcripts related to the apoptotic and survival pathway were reported for the first time such asCASP6andIL1RAPL1that were specific to MII oocytes;CASP2,ENDOG, andGFERto blastocysts in human. These findings open new perspectives for the characterization and understanding of the survival and apoptotic signalling pathways that control early human and mouse embryonic development.
The biography of specimen "09.04.1954, 3.4 mm" from the "Blechschmidt Collection of Human Embryos" at Göttingen University. With a special focus on the production and usage of enlarged 3D replicas of embryos in the anatomical research on human embryos.