Isolation and characterization of canine umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells

Human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are known to possess the potential for multiple differentiations abilities in vitro and in vivo. In canine system, studying stem cell therapy is important, but so far, stem cells from canine were not identified and characterized. In this study, we successfully isolated and characterized MSCs from the canine umbilical cord and its fetal blood. Canine MSCs (cMSCs) were grown in medium containing low glucose DMEM with 20% FBS. The cMSCs have stem cells expression patterns which are concerned with MSCs surface markers by fluorescence-activated cell sorter analysis. The cMSCs had multipotent abilities. In the neuronal differentiation study, the cMSCs expressed the neuronal markers glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), neuronal class III β tubulin (Tuj-1), neurofilament M (NF160) in the basal culture media. After neuronal differentiation, the cMSCs expressed the neuronal markers Nestin, GFAP, Tuj-1, microtubule-associated protein 2, NF160. In the osteogenic & chondrogenic differentiation studies, cMSCs were stained with alizarin red and toluidine blue staining, respectively. With osteogenic differentiation, the cMSCs presented osteoblastic differentiation genes by RT-PCR. This finding also suggests that cMSCs might have the ability to differentiate multipotentially. It was concluded that isolated MSCs from canine cord blood have multipotential differentiation abilities. Therefore, it is suggested that cMSCs may represent a be a good model system for stem cell biology and could be useful as a therapeutic modality for canine incurable or intractable diseases, including spinal cord injuries in future regenerative medicine studies.