Isolation, characterization and transduction of canine bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (cBM-MSCs)

BACKGROUND: Stem cell therapy in small animal medicineis still in its infancy and few in vitro and in vivo research projectsregarding animal Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) have beencarried out. On the other hand, Cell tracking is the first step of thecell-based therapies and is essential to recognize cell fate posttransplantation. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was toisolate, characterize, and transduce cBM-MSCs. METHODS:Canine Bone Marrow-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells (cBMMSCs)were isolated from bone marrow of dogs andcharacterized based on morphology, differentiation capacities,and surface marker expressions. For the first time, we labeledcBM-MSCs by GFP-encoding lentiviral vector to track them.RESULTS: cBM-MSCs were successfully isolated and proliferated.Morphologically, these cells were similar to otherMSCs from other sources and species and were able todifferentiate into osteocytes and adipocytes. cBM-MSCsexpressed surface marker CD44 but were not able to expressCD34. Approximately, 70% of cells efficaciously expressedGFPafter labeling; CONCLUSIONS:We found that GFP labelingis an easy and effective technique to track transplanted cBMMSCs.Our results also provide fundamental information aboutcanine BM-MSCs in order to use in veterinary medicine.