Equine Bone Marrow Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells: Isolation and Multilineage Differentiation

Objective- To evaluate growth characteristics and differentiation capacity of equine mesenchymal stem cell (eMSCs) derived from bone marrow (BM). Study design- In vitro experimental study. Animals- Four young adult horses (2-5 years old) Procedure- Cell morphology and growth characteristics of eMSCs harvested from BM were evaluated in standard culture conditions. eMSCs in passage 3 were subjected to osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation induction to investigate their differentiation potential.PCR analysis of differentiated cells was done to determine differentiation. Results-The cells expanded to sufficient quantity for therapeutic purposes within days and they survived to later passages while sustained their fibroblast-like morphology. Positive osteogenesis was detected via Alizarin Red staining and adipogenesis was confirmed by Oil Red O staining. The cells were more potential to differentiate into osteoblasts rather than adipocytes. PCR analysis approve relative expression of osteogenic and adipogenic genes. Conclusions and Clinical relevance - The results of this study further support eBM-MSCs as a cell population with the capacity to proliferate and differentiate down the osteogenic and adipogenic lineages. Equine BM is a potentials source of MSCs for cell-based regenerative therapies in horse.