Department of Equine Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Theriogenology. 2010 Sep 1;74(4):516-24. doi: 10.1016/j.theriogenology.2009.11.020. Epub 2010 Jan 13.
Cartilage and tendon injuries are a significant source of animal wastage and financial loss within the horse-racing industry. Moreover, both cartilage and tendon have limited intrinsic capacity for self-repair, and the functionally inferior tissue produced within a lesion may reduce performance and increase the risk of reinjury. Stem cells offer tremendous potential for accelerating and improving tissue healing, and adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are already used to treat cartilage and tendon injuries in horses. However, MSCs are scarce in the bone marrow isolates used, have limited potential for proliferation and differentiation in vitro, and do not appear to noticeably improve long-term functional repair. Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) or induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells could overcome many of the limitations and be used to generate tissues of value for equine regenerative medicine. To date, six lines of putative ESCs have been described in the horse. All expressed stem cell-associated markers and exhibited longevity and pluripotency in vitro, but none have been proven to exhibit pluripotency in vivo. Moreover, it is becoming clear that the markers used to characterize the putative ESCs were inadequate, primarily because studies in domestic species have revealed that they are not specific to ESCs or the pluripotent inner cell mass, but also because the function of most in the maintenance of pluripotency is not known. Future derivation and validation of equine embryonic or other pluripotent stem cells would benefit greatly from a reliable panel of molecular markers specific to pluripotent cells of the developing horse embryo.
软骨和肌腱损伤是赛马行业动物浪费和经济损失的一个重要来源。此外，软骨和肌腱自我修复的内在能力有限，病变部位产生的功能低下组织可能会降低性能并增加再次受伤的风险。干细胞为加速和改善组织愈合提供了巨大的潜力，成体间充质干细胞（MSCs）已被用于治疗马的软骨和肌腱损伤。然而，骨髓分离物中 MSC 数量稀少，体外增殖和分化的潜力有限，并且似乎不会明显改善长期功能修复。胚胎干细胞（ESCs）或诱导多能干细胞（iPS 细胞）可以克服许多限制，并用于生成对马再生医学有价值的组织。迄今为止，已在马中描述了 6 条假定的 ESC 系。所有这些都表达了与干细胞相关的标记物，并在体外表现出长寿性和多能性，但没有一条被证明在体内具有多能性。此外，越来越明显的是，用于表征假定 ESC 的标记物是不充分的，主要是因为在国内物种中的研究表明，它们不仅不是 ESC 或多能性内细胞团的特异性标记物，而且因为大多数标记物在维持多能性方面的功能尚不清楚。未来对马胚胎或其他多能性干细胞的衍生和验证将极大地受益于一组针对发育中马胚胎多能性细胞的可靠分子标记物。
