| dc.description.abstract | Female germline stem cells (FGSCs) have been successfully isolated from ovaries of mouse, pig and human, and their differentiation potential has also been investigated. However, these cells have not been established in bovine species yet. Since cow has the same reproductive strategy as human, researches on bovine FGSCs have the potential to be applied on human. Furthermore, bovine female germline stem line is a promising source of cells to produce transgenic cows. Therefore, the aim of this research is to isolate FGSCs from bovine ovaries, then characterize them, and examine their differentiation capacity. In this study, cortical tissue was cut from bovine ovaries, treated with collagenase (type IV)/trypsin and dispersed into single cells by pipetting. Dispersed FGSCs were subsequently culture on gelatin for 24 hours, 1 week or 2 weeks in DMEM/F-12 supplemented with 10% FBS before being aggregated with mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) and cultured in differentiation medium. Cells were cultured for 2 weeks before being taken out and characterized by immune staining. After one month of in vitro culture, FGSCs still maintained their proliferating capacity and expression of germ cell marker, Dazl. Moreover, some of them even increase in size when they were aggregated with MEF and cultured in differentiation medium. From our finding, we concluded that FGSCs were present in postnatal bovine ovary and could be isolated as well as cultured in vitro. In addition, they had the ability to proliferate in vitro and differentiate into oocyte-like cells (OLCs).
Keywords – Female germline stem cells, oogenesis, oocytes, oocyte-like cells, differentiation | en_US |
