Aurora激酶是参与细胞周期调节的重要激酶,已成为肿瘤研究领域的热点.近年来有研究表明,Aurora激酶A(Aurora kinase A,AURKA)对卵母细胞减数分裂也起到重要的调节作用,但对其在哺乳动物早期胚胎发育中的研究鲜有报道.本研究利用显微注射向受精卵中导入干扰AURKA表达的质粒,观察了AURKA表达敲低对小鼠受精卵早期发育的影响,并检测丝裂原活化蛋白激酶(mitogen-activated protein kinase,MAPK)通路抑制后,小鼠受精卵卵裂及AURKA表达与活性变化.实验结果表明,干扰AURKA的表达可导致受精卵发育停滞和异常分裂.MAPK通路的抑制亦可破坏受精卵正常卵裂,并下调AURKA的蛋白表达及活性.实验结果提示,AURKA是小鼠受精卵早期发育所必需的,并与MAPK通路的激活相关.
Aurora kinases are pivotal factors to the successful conduction of cell division and increasingly recognized in cancer research.In recent years,Aurora kinase A(AURKA) has been shown to significantly involved in the regulation of oocyte meiosis,but its role in mammalian early embryonic development is still unclear.In this study,we knocked down the expression of AURKA by microinjection of Aurka-shRNA plasmid to investigate its significance in mouse early embryonic development.We detected the expression of AURKA and its kinase activity changes after inhibition of mitogen-activated protein kinase(MAPK) signaling.The results showed that down-regulated AURKA expression resulted in mitotic arrest and abnormal cell division,and inhibition of MAPK pathway also led to abnormal cleavage of early embryos.The results indicated that AURKA was required for early development of mouse zygotes and connected with activation of MAPK pathway.