Isolation, in vitro culture and characterization of foal umbilical cord stem cells at birth.

Over the past few years, mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have become a promising tool for therapeutic applications in regenerative medicine both for humans and animals. Like haematopoietic cells, mesenchymal cells have been shown to proliferate and form fibroblast-like colonies in vitro. MSCs can be isolated directly from bone marrow, adipose tissue, umbilical cord and other foetal tissues. In specific culture conditions in vitro, they are able to differentiate into several cell types such as osteoblasts, condroblasts, tenocytes, myocytes and adipocytes. Bone marrow represents the most common source for MSCs, however, cell number and proliferation/differentiation capabilities decrease with donor age and culture passages in vitro (D´Ippolito et al. 1999). Therefore, umbilical cord could represent a good source of stem cells other than bone marrow, considering the pluripotency characteristics of these cells and the fact that it is easy to sample from the umbilical cord. Protocols for tissue sampling and the isolation of MSCs from bone marrow are well defined in horses, however, to date no investigations of the use and characterization of cells.