Isolation and Biological Characteristics of Chicken Adipose-Derived Progenitor Cells

Adipose-derived stem cells/adipose-derived progenitor cells (ADPCs) are multipotent stem cells that can differentiate in vitro into many cell types. However, the vast majority of experimental materials were obtained from human, mouse, rabbit, and other mammals but rarely from poultry. In this study, ADPCs were isolated from 1-day-old chicks. Primary ADPCs were subcultured to passage 15. The surface markers of ADPCs, CD29, CD44, CD71, and CD73, were detected by immunofluorescence and RT-polymerase chain reaction assays. The growth curves of different passages were all typically sigmoidal. In addition, ADPCs of different passages were successfully induced to differentiate into osteoblasts, adipocytes, and myocardial cells. The results suggest that the ADPCs isolated from chicken possess similar biological characteristics with those derived from other species, and their multilineage differentiation provides many potential applications.