Pak2 Depletion Induces a Failure of Early Embryonic Development in Mice

Abstract Background: The quality of the early embryo is vital to embryonic development and implantation. As a highly conserved serine/threonine kinase, p21-activated kinase 2 (Pak2) participates in diverse biologic processes, especially in cytoskeleton remodeling and cell apoptosis. However, the role of Pak2 in preimplantation embryos remains unelucidated. Methods: In the present work, Pak2 was depleted using a specific small interfering RNA in early mouse embryos, validating the unique roles of Pak2 in spindle assembly and DNA repair during mice early embryonic development. We also employed immunoblotting, immunostaining, in vitro fertilization (IVF) and image quantification analyses to test the Pak2 knockdown on the embryonic development progression, spindle assembly, chromosome alignment, oxidative stress, DNA lesions and blastocyst cell apoptosis.Results: We found that Pak2 deletion significantly reduced blastocyst formation of early embryos. In addition, Pak2 depletion led to dramatically increased abnormal spindle assembly and chromosomal aberrations in the embryos. We noted the overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) with Pak2 knockdown in embryos. Pak2 knockdown also resulted in the accumulation of phosphorylated γH2AX, indicative of increased embryonic DNA damage. Commensurate with this, a significantly augmented rate of blastocyst cell apoptosis was detected in Pak2-KD embryos compared to their controls. Conclusions: Collectively, our data suggest that Pak2 may serve as an important regulator of spindle assembly and DNA repair, and thus participate in the development of early mouse embryos.