Isolation of Peripheral Blood-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Mares and Foals

Peripheral blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells (PB-MSCs) have shown promise in cell-based therapy, as they can be harvested with ease through minimally invasive procedures.This study aimed to isolate PB-MSCs from foals and mares and to compare the proliferation and cellular characteristics of the PB-MSCs between the two groups.Six pairs of mares and their foals were used in this study.MSCs were isolated from PB by direct plating in a tissue culture medium, and cell proliferation (population doubling time [PDT], and colony-forming unit-fibroblast assay [CFU-F]), and characterization (morphology, plastic adhesiveness, colony formation, trilineage differentiation) were examined.There was no significant difference in the PB-MSC yield, CFU-F, and PDT between the mares and foals.PB-MSCs from both mares and foals showed typical MSC characteristics in terms of spindle-shaped morphology, plastic adhesive properties, formation of colonies, trilineage differentiation.These results suggest that PB-MSCs isolated from horses, both adult horses, and foals, can be used for equine cell-based therapy.