Effects of feeder cells on proliferation of inducible pluripotent stem cells in chicken

ABSTRACT

Although inducible pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) have been identified in poultry, the induction efficiency is low, because different culture media, feeder cells and feeder layer treatments affect the efficiency of somatic cell reprogramming. We investigated improvement of the feeder culture system for induction of chicken iPSC by comparing the effects of different types and treatments of feeder cells on the growth and proliferation of chicken iPSC. Mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEF), but not Sandoz inbred mouse-derived thioguanine-resistant and ouabain-buffalo rat cells, were suitable feeder cells that supported proliferation of chicken iPSC. Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice, but not Kunming mice, were suitable for preparing MEF that support cell proliferation. Also, MEF feeder cells that had been inactivated by mitomycin C were effective. Leukemia inhibitory factor was not required for chicken iPSC culture when MEF feeder cells were used. The optimal feeder culture system for growth and proliferation of chicken iPSC consisted of MEF feeder cells derived from ICR mice that were inactivated by mitomycin C combined with embryonic germ cell culture medium.

KEYWORDS:

• Chicken
• culture medium
• embryo
• fibroblast feeder
• leukemia inhibitory factor
• mice
• pluripotent stem cells
• poultry
• proliferation

Acknowledgments

Ziying Zhu and Xueliang Zhou contributed equally to this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Our study was supported jointly by National Natural Science Foundation of China [31560631], Guangxi Natural Science Foundation [2015GXNSFCB139009, 2014GXNSFBA118096] and Guangxi High Education Innovative Research Group and Eminent Scholar Project [2014-7].