Scope and Application of Stem Cell Research

in Livestock

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 Stem Cell
 Stem cells are master cells with two important
characteristics
 Unspecialized cells capable of their own renewal
 Ability to differentiate into different cell types

 The stem cells may have various differentiation

potentials
 Totipotent
 Pluripotent
 Multipotent
 Unipotent
 Types of stem cells
 Embryonic stem
cells
 Adult stem cells
 Characteristics of Embryonic stem cells

 Derived from ICM/epiblast of Blastocyst

 Pluripotent
 Long-term self-renewal
 Exibit and maintain a stable diploid normal complement
of chromosome
 Expression of Oct-4
 Lacks G1 check point in the cells cycle
 Don’t show X inactivation
 Stemness Genes

 Oct4
 Nanog
 SSEA1
 SSEA2
 SSEA3
 BMP4
 Characteristics of Adult stem cells

 Long-term self-renewal
 Give rise to mature cells having characteristic
morphologies and specialized functions
 Rare
 Dispersed in tissues throughout the body
 Origin of adult stem cells in tissues is yet not known
 Tissues containing adult stem cells
 Bone marrow
 Skeletal muscle
 Epithelia of skin and digestive system
 Cornea retina
 Peripheral blood
 Spinal cord
 Blood vessels
 Testes
 Liver
 Pancreas
 Kidney
 Heart, etc
 Stem cells speciality
 Apoptosis
No apoptosis in stem cells

 Telomere
No shortening of telomere in stem cells

 DNA Methylation
Minimum DNA methylation in stem cells
 ES cells from livestock species

Iwaski et al 1990 ICM proportion lower in bovine IVF embryos than in vivo produced
Saito et al 1992 Bovine embryonic stem cells grow slower than murine embryonic stem
cells
Hamers et al 1995 Bovine culturing embryo derived cells resemble epithelial cells rather
than pluripotent ICM cells
Talbot et al 2000 Bovine embryonic cells grew as cell sheets. Passaging by physical
dissociation
Li et al 2003 Porcine ICMs isolated by enzymatic method. Two embryonic cell lines
cultured upto 6 passages
van Eijk et al 1999 Bovine Oct 4 pseudogene isolated
Wang et al 2005 ES cells from cloned bovine embryos with marker staining
pattern similar to bovine blastocysts
Yadav et al 2005 Bovine ICM derived cells express the Oct4 ortholog
 Major Applications

 Animal model testing for pharmaceutical research

 Use of stem cells in transplantation and cell replacement therapy
 Conservation of endangered species
 Understanding fundamental events in embryonic development
 Therapeutic delivery system
 To resolve mysteries of developmental biology
 To investigate genes involved in differentiation and development
 Cell banking for research applications
 Identification of stem cells

 Cell morphology
 Expression of unique cell surface antigens
 Characterization of biochemical markers such as tissue specific
enzymatic activity
 Expression of genes that are unique to a particular cell type
 Nuclear chromosomal karyotype to access genetic stability
 Scope
 Pharmaceuticals: diabetes, cardiac anomalies, neurodegeneration,
and infertility
 Neutraceuticals : produce heterologous nutrients
 Understanding early embryonic development
 Model for in vitro drug and immunity screening
 Producing environment friendly animals eg. Phytase and methane
 Tissue remodeling and engineering
 Cell-cell communication and differentiation
 Conservation
 Germ stem cells challenge age old dogma of female born with fixed
number of oocytes
 Livestock stem cells

 Farm animals are contributing in human health through

 Nutrition
 Producing biomedicine
 Cell therapy
 Xenotransplantation
 With decoding of the genome sequences in animals,
stem cell promise to resolve many mysteries of the
developmental biology
 Transgenic animals with important agricultural
traits
 Bovine alpha lactalbumin in mammary glands of sows–improves
lactation performance
 Sheep carrying Kerartin – IGF-1 construct shows expression in skin
for clear fleece in transgenic animals
 Transgenic pig bearing an hMt-pGH construct tightly regulated by
Zinc feeding - improves traits as growth rate, feed conversion,
body fat muscle ratio
 Phytase gene exclusively expressed in salivary gland enables the
pigs to digest phytate which can be metabolized by the intestine.
Release low phosphorus in manure
 Transgenic in Biomedicine
Proteins synthesized in farm animals milk

 Bovine -2 Human lactoferrin

 Caprine - 5 TPA
 Ovine - 4 Alpha AT
 Pigs - 2 AT III
 Rabbits - 7 Alpha glucosidase