Isolation, culture, and induced multiple differentiation of Mongolian sheep bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells.

The aim of this paper was to explore the optimal method of isolating, purifying, and proliferating Mongolian sheep bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) and their multiple differentiation potentialities. Bone marrow (BM) was punctured from ∼1-year-old sheep, and BMSCs were harvested through gradient centrifuge and adherent cultures. Analysis of the growth of the passage 1, 5, and 10 cultures revealed an S-shaped growth curve with a population doubling time of 31.2 h. Karyotyping indicated that the chromosome number in the Mongolian sheep was 2n = 54, comprising 26 pairs of autosomes and one pair of sex chromosomes (XY). RT-PCR demonstrated that OCT4, SOX2, and Nanog genes at passage 3 were positively expressed. The P3 BMSCs were cultured in vitro under inductive environments and induced into adipocytes, osteoblasts, chondrocytes, neural cells, and cardiomyocytes. Their differentiation properties were confirmed by histological staining, such as oil red, Alizarin red, hematoxylin-eosin, toluidine blue, and periodic acid schiff. RT-PCR showed that the specific genes to be induced were all expressed. This proves that the isolated cells are indeed the BMSCs and also provides valuable materials for somatic cell cloning and transgenic research.