Comparison of cell proliferation and epigenetic modification of gene expression patterns in canine foetal fibroblasts and adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells

Objectives This study compared rate of cell proliferation, viability, cell size, expression patterns of genes related to pluripotency and epigenetic modification between canine foetal fibroblasts (cFF) and canine adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (cAd-MSC). Materials and methods Proliferation pattern, cell viability as well as cell size at each passage of cFF and cAd-MSC were measured when cultures reached confluence. In addition, real-time PCR was performed to investigate expression of Dnmt1, HDAC1, OCT4, SOX2, BAX, BCL2 genes with reference to beta-actin gene expression as an endogenous control in both cell lines. Results cFF and cAd-MSC differed in number of generations, but not in doubling times, at all passages. Mean cell size of cAd-MSC was significantly smaller than that of cFF. Cell viability was significantly lower in cFFs and apoptotic level was significantly lower in cAd-MSC compared to passage-matched cFF. In the expression of genes related to pluripotency and epigenetic modification, level of HDAC1 in cAd-MSC was significantly higher than in cFF, but expression of Dnmt1 did not differ between the two groups. OCT4 and SOX2 were significantly more highly expressed in cAd-MSC compared to cFF. Conclusions cAd-MSC have higher stem-cell potential than cFF in terms of proliferation patterns, epigenetic modification and pluripotency, thus cAd-MSC could be more appropriate than cFF as donors of nuclei in somatic cell nuclear transfer for transgenesis.