The objective of this study was to examine the health and meat production of cloned sows and their progenies in order to demonstrate the application of somatic cell cloning to the pig industry. This study compared the growth, reproductive performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality of Landrace cloned sows, F1 progenies and F2 progenies. We measured their body weight, growth rate and feed conversion and performed a pathological analysis of their anatomy to detect abnormalities. Three of the five cloned pigs were used for a growth test. Cloned pigs grew normally and had characteristics similar to those of the control purebred Landrace pigs. Two cloned gilts were bred with a Landrace boar and used for a progeny test. F1 progenies had characteristics similar to those of the controls. Two of the F1 progeny gilts were bred with a Duroc or Large White boar and used for the progeny test. F2 progenies grew normally. There were no biological differences in growth, carcass characteristics and amino acid composition among cloned sows, F1 progenies, F2 progenies and conventional pigs. The cloned sows and F1 progenies showed normal reproductive performance. No specific abnormalities were observed by pathological analysis, with the exception of periarteritis in the F1 progenies. All pigs had a normal karyotype. These results demonstrate that cloned female pigs and their progenies have similar growth, reproductive performance and carcass quality characteristics and that somatic cell cloning could be a useful technique for conserving superior pig breeds in conventional meat production.

The impact of the terminal ligands on the titanium center on the coordination features of deprotonated 2,2′-bis­(indolyl)­methanes (henceforth: bis­(indolyl)­s) was studied via a structural comparison between {bis­(indolyl)}­Ti­(NEt2)2 complexes and the corresponding dichlorido complexes. As a result, several flexible aspects of bis­(indolyl) coordination were found. For example, it was revealed that an η1-coordinated indolyl moiety can change its coordination mode to coordination via the five-membered ring of indolyl when the terminal diethylamido ligands are replaced by chlorido ligands. Moreover, we found that the methoxy group in the central aromatic ring of the bis­(indolyl) ligand can coordinate to the titanium center. The synthesized dichlorido complexes were applied for catalytic alkyne cyclotrimerization reactions, as Ti-based catalyst systems are less developed than Co-, Ni-, Ru-, Rh-, and Ir-based systems. During this study, the cyclotrimerization of HCCSiMe3 was found to preferentially produce the 1,3,5-form (1,3,5-form:1,2,4-form = 79:21), contrary to the typical trend of transition-metal-mediated alkyne cyclotrimerization, and the isolated yield (72%) is the highest among the known 1,3,5-favoring reactions using Ti-based catalyst systems. Furthermore, the reaction mechanism was experimentally verified to proceed through a typical stepwise mechanism involving monomeric species.

The epithelium of mouse oral mucosa was studied by immunohistochemistry using antikeratin antibodies and electron microscopy. The basal and intermediate layers of the densely cornified epithelium, covering the hard palate, external gingiva, vermilion border of the lip, and the filiform papillae of the tongue, were stained by PKK2 antibody which reacted with 40, 46, 48, and 54 kDa keratin subunits, but not by PKK1 which reacted with 40, 45, 52. 5kDa keratin subunits. Keratin filaments in these cell layers were arranged in densely aggregated bundles. In the less densely cornified epithelium, covering the soft palate, alveolar mucosa, labial mucosa, gingival sulcus, and interpapillary and ventral portion of the tongue, the basal layer indicated the same staining and ultrastructure as observed in the densely cornified epithelium, furthermore so did all layers of the noncornified junctional epithelium.On the other hand, the intermediate layer of cells of the less densely cornified epithelium were stained by PKK1 antibody, but not by PKK2, and posessed less densely aggregated bundles of filaments or complicated reticulated filaments. These results suggest that the aggregation and distribution pattern of keratin filaments may reflect differences in the keratin subunits which configure the filaments.