Myogenic differentiation potential of chicken mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow

Abstract Background: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have the potential to multilineage differentiation, which can be used for a good model to provide critical insight of chicken muscle development. Differential adhesion method is one of the commonest methods to isolate MSCs based on the ability of plastic adhesion. 5-azacytidine (5-Aza), dexamethasone (DXMS), hydrocortisone (HC) and horse serum had been proved the potential to induce the myogenic differentiation of MSCs. However, the myogenic differentiation of MSCs is still poorly understood in chicken. In present study, we isolated chicken mesenchymal stem cells (cMSCs) from bone using 4-hour differential adhesion method and analyzed the myogenic effect of cMSCs treated with different method based on 5-Aza, DXMS, HC and horse serum. Results: cMSCs isolated by 4-hour differential adhesion method expressed MSCs special surface markers and presented normal growth characteristic. cMSCs showed great potential of myogenic differentiation by the treatment of 5-Aza and horse serum. RNA-sequence, GO and KGEE enrichment analysis revealed that this effect might be based on demethylation of 5-Aza and ECM-receptor interaction, focal adhesion, PI3K-Akt, p53, TGF-beta signaling pathways. Moreover, DXMS, HC and horse serum also presented potential of myogenic differentiation, but the effect was not as good as 5-Aza and horse serum method. Conclusions: cMSCs showed potential of myogenic differentiation by the treatment of 5-Aza and horse serum or DXMS, HC and horse serum.