Abstract
Tendon injuries are among the most common and severe hand injuries with a high demand for functional recovery. Stem cells have been identified and isolated from different species and a variety of tissues for the sake of regenerative medicine. Recently, turkey has been suggested as a potential new large animal model for flexor tendon-related research. However, turkey tissue-specific stem cells have not been investigated. Here, we presented the isolation and verification of tendon-derived stem cells (TDSCs) from 6- to 8-month-old heritage-breed turkey. TDSCs were isolated from turkey flexor tendon by plating nucleated cells at the determined optimal density. Approximately 4% of the nucleated cells demonstrated clonogenicity, high proliferation rate, and trilineage differentiation potential after induction culturing. These cells expressed surface antigens CD90, CD105, and CD44, but did not express CD45. There was a high level of gene expression of tenogenic markers in TDSCs, including mohawk, collagen type I, tenascin C, and elastin. Turkey TDSCs also expressed transcription factors PouV, Nanog, and Sox2, which are critically involved in the regulation of stemness. The successful isolation of tendon-derived stem cells from turkey was beneficial for future studies in tendon tissue engineering and would help in the development of new treatment for tendon diseases using this novel animal model.
Highlights
Tendon injuries debilitate numerous people in athletic and occupational surroundings and remain a clinical challenge [1,2,3]
This study demonstrated that turkey flexor tendon harbors a population of cells that has stem cell characteristics
Using methods previously described [23, 24, 35], we have isolated for the first time multipotent cells from the turkey flexor tendon
Summary
Tendon injuries debilitate numerous people in athletic and occupational surroundings and remain a clinical challenge [1,2,3]. Injured tendon tissue heals very slowly, especially flexor tendons in the hand which is one of the most common injuries in upper extremity [4,5,6]. Surgical interventions following flexor tendon injury are needed to restore function [7, 8] but often associated with inferior structural integrity and mechanical strength [9, 10]. Stem cell-mediated approaches play a crucial role in regeneration medicine to improve the outcome of tendon injuries [11,12,13,14]. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) possess clonogenicity, multipotency, and high proliferative capacity. MSCs serve as a favorable cell source for applications in the field of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. MSCs can be isolated from several tissues such as synovium [16], umbilical cord [17], adipose [18], cartilage [19], and periosteum [20] but most commonly from bone marrow [21] and adipose tissue [22]
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