title: Biological characterization of sheep kidney-derived mesenchymal stem cells.
abstract: The aim of the present study was to isolate, culture and characterize sheep metanephric mesenchymal stem cells (MMSCs). The MMSCs were isolated from the kidney tissue of six-week-old sheep fetus. This study investigated whether primary MMSCs could be grown for 26 passages and expressed Oct-4, which is involved in the self-renewal of undifferentiated pluripotent stem cells. The MMSCs also expressed the renal lineage marker gene PAX2, and mesenchymal cell marker genes CD44, FN1 and VIM. Expression of these genes was detected using immunofluorescence and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assays. Additionally, we observed that the MMSCs are able to differentiate into adipocyte, hepatocyte and chondrocyte cells. Karyotype analyses showed that these cells were 95% diploid and thus differentiated. These results indicate that the MMSCs obtained from sheep fetuses possessed certain characteristics of multipotent stem cells. Therefore, MMSCs may potentially offer utility for tissue engineering and cellular transplantation therapy, and further studies are required to investigate these uses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Genetic Resources, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Genetic Resources, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Chunyu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Genetic Resources, College of Animal Science and Technology, Agricultural University of Hebei, Baoding, Hebei 071000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Genetic Resources, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Ya'Nan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Genetic Resources, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Caiyun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Genetic Resources, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xiangchen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Genetic Resources, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Weijun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Guan
keywords: biological characteristics; culture; induce; metanephric mesenchyme stem cells; sheep