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

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. 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.