It is assumed that all species, including sheep, demonstrate significant variation between individuals including the characteristics of their bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs). These differences may account for limited success in pre-clinical animal studies and may also impact on treatment strategies that are used within regenerative medicine. This study investigates variations between ovine MSCs (oMSCs) isolated from 13 English Mule sheep donors by studying cell viability, expansion, the cells' trilineage differentiation potential and the expression of cell surface markers. In addition to the primary objective, this article also compares various differentiation media used for the trilineage differentiation of oMSCs. In this study, a clear individual variation between the sheep donors regarding oMSCs characterization, tri-lineage differentiation potential and marker expression was effectively demonstrated. The results set out to systematically explore the ovine mesenchymal stem cell population derived from multiple donors. With this information, it is possible to start addressing the issues of personalized approaches to regenerative therapies.
Keywords: Ovine bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells; cartilage repair; donor variability; regenerative therapies; sheep model.
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