The Role of Histone Arginine Methylase 3 on Human Developmental Block Embryos Cultured in Vitro
ZHANG Wuwen1#*, LI Shifeng2#, LI Kai1#, LI Li1, YIN Ping1, TONG Guoqing1
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.
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