Isolation、Culture and Identification of Rabbit Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Objective To evaluate the methods of isolation,culture and identification of rabbit mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs),and compare the expression of cell-surface markers between rabbit and human. Methods Rabbit MSCs were obtained from the femurs of Adult New Zealand White rabbits by centrifugation and analyzed by Immunofluorescence and flow cytometry to measure the changes of CD29,CD44 and CD34. Results Most cell lines were composed of cells with a characteristic spindle shape. Immunocytochemistry revealed that Rb-MSCs were positive in CD44 and CD29 and negative in CD34. Flow cytometric analysis confirmed that 90.26% of the cells expressed CD29 and 89.76% of the cells expressed CD44; only 5.15% of the cells expressed CD34 in cultured cells. Conclusion The cell-surface markers in rabbit MSCs are partly the same as those in human MSCs,so the rabbit MSCs can be used in researches instead of human MSCs.