Somatic cell nuclear transfer offers new opportunities for genetic engineering and genome preservation in mammalian animal
species. We show that, in addition to cumulus cells, cultured adult rabbit fibroblasts are also capable of supporting full-term
development after nuclear transfer. Nuclear transfer embryos constructed using serum-starved fibroblasts showed a significantly
higher developmental rate than non-starved fibroblasts through preimplantation stages. A total of 467 nuclear transfer embryos
were transferred into the oviducts of pseudo pregnant mothers. Eight of the 20 surrogate rabbits carried the pregnancy to
term and five of them gave birth naturally to a total of nine rabbits. However, all of the offspring died before postnatal day 10.
A Caesarean section was performed on three surrogates, giving birth to a total of five rabbits, three of them survived and grew into
healthy adults. DNA analyses confirmed that these rabbits were genetically identical to the donor male rabbit. The present study
demonstrates that rabbits can be cloned from adult fibroblasts after culture.