Isolation and Characterization of Mesenchymal Stem Cells from Chicken Liver

Hepatic mesenchymal stem cells (HMSCs) are multipotent stem cells that is a vital part of the regeneration of hepatocytes after injury. In this study, HMSCs were isolated in embryonic livers from of 12-day-old chick embryo using collagenase, and the primary HMSCs were sub-cultured to passage. The protein markers of HMSCs, namely CD71, CD29 and CD44, were tested with immunofluorescence and Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). The proliferation of HMSCs in different passages was detected using growth curve, which shown a typically sigmoidal. And then, the pluripotent of HMSCs was analyzed, the results showed that HMSCs could directly induce to differentiate into neural-like cells, adipocytes, and osteoblasts. Our data illustrated that the chick HMSCs have same characteristics to those obtained from other species. The capacity of these cells for multilineage differentiation shows promise for many potential applications.