Isolation and characterization of deer-derived mesenchymal stem cells

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are capable of differentiating into mesenchymal tissue such as bone, cartilage, muscle, and adipose, and have been isolated and characterized from various species. Deer adipose tissue-derived MSCs (dAD-MSCs) have not been studied and deer bone marrow-derived MSCs (dBM-MSCs) have not been fully characterized. In this study, we firstly isolated MSCs from deer tissues and then compared characteristics of dAD-MSCs and dBM-MSCs. dAD-MSCs and dBM-MSCs exhibited significant increase in proliferation under low-glucose DMEM culture condition during 20 and 10 passages consecutive passages, respectively. Both cells expressed cell surface markers such as CD73, CD90, and CD105, but did not express CD34 and CD45. Two types of cells expressed stemness markers (Oct4, Sox2, and Nanog) and exhibited differentiation potential into mesodermal lineages. Both cells exhibited osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation potential, but poor adipogenic differentiation potential. Specifically, dAD-MSCs have a greater capacity for chondrogenic differentiation potential compared to dBM-MSCs. Collectively, we successfully isolated dAD-MSCs from deer for the first time. This study suggests that adipose tissue of deer could be used as a source of deer MSCs.