Establishment and characterization of a fibroblast cell line derived from Mongolian sheep

The Mongolian sheep ear marginal tissue fibroblast cell line (MSF32) from 32 samples was successfully established by using primary explants technique and cell cryoconservation technology. MSF32 cells were adherent, with a population doubling time of 28.2 h. Chromosome analysis showed that >90.2% of cells were diploid (2n = 54) prior to cell passage 4. Isoenzyme analyses of lactate dehydrogenase and malate dehydrogenase showed that the MSF22 cells had no cross‐contamination with other species. Tests for cell line contamination with bacteria, fungi, viruses and mycoplasmas were also negative. Plasmids encoding the fluorescent proteins pEGFP‐N3, pEGFP‐C1, pECFP‐N1, pECFP‐mito, pDsRed1‐N1 and pEYFP‐N1 were transfected into cells to study exogenous gene expression in the cells. The plasmid transfection efficiency was between 12.3% and 63.3%. Every index of the MSF32 cell line meets all the standard quality controls of American Type Culture Collection (ATCC). Not only has the genetic resources of the Mongolian sheep been preserved at the cell level, but also valuable materials had been provided for genome, postgenome and somacloning research.