TITLE:
Chicken Mesenchymal Stem Cells as Feeder Cells Facilitate the Cultivation of Primordial Germ Cells from Circulating Blood and Gonadal Ridge
AUTHORS:
Dongsheng Li, Zhisheng Chen, Shengfeng Chen, Huiqin Ji, Xiaoshu Zhan, Dongzhang Luo, Huina Luo, Bingyun Wang
KEYWORDS:
Chicken, Primordial Germ Cells, Mensenchymal Stem Cells, Transgenic
JOURNAL NAME:
Stem Cell Discovery,
Vol.9 No.1,
January
31,
2019
ABSTRACT: Long-term maintenance of chicken primordial germ cells (PGCs) in vitro has tremendous potential for
transgenic chicken production. Feeder cells are essential for the establishment
and culture of chicken PGCs in vitro.
Buffalo rat liver (BRL) cells are the most commonly used feeder cells for PGCs
culture; however, this feeder layers from other animal species usually cause
immunogenic contaminations, compromising the potential of PGCs in applications.
Therefore, we tested chicken source mensenchymal stem cell (MSCs) derived from
bone marrow as feeder cells to further improve PGC culture conditions. MSCs derived from
chicken bone marrow have a powerful capacity to proliferate and secrete
cytokines. We found chicken primordial germ cells derived from circulating blood
(cPGCs) and gonads (gPGCs) can be maintained and proliferated with MSCs feeder
layer cells. PGCs co-cultured on MSCs feeder retained their pluripotency, expressed PGCs
specific genes and stemness markers, and maintained undifferentiated
state. Our study indicated that the xeno-free MSCs-feeders culture system is a
good candidate for growth and expansion of PGCs as the stepping stone for
transgenic chicken research.