In vitro growth and differentiation of canine olfactory bulb-derived neural progenitor cells under variable culture conditions

The dog serves as a large animal model for multiple neurologic diseases that may potentially benefit from neural progenitor cell (NPC) transplantation. In the adult brain, multipotent NPCs reside in the subventricular zone and its rostral and caudal extensions into the olfactory bulb and hippocampus. The olfactory bulb represents a surgically accessible site for obtaining cells for autologous NPC transplantation. To model conditions that would occur for ex vivo gene therapy in the postnatal brain, NPCs were isolated from the canine olfactory bulb, expanded ex vivo under different culture conditions, and compared quantitatively for growth and immunophenotype. Under standard growth conditions, canine olfactory bulb-derived NPCs (OB-cNPCs) could be expanded nearly 500-fold in the time evaluated. Canine OB-cNPCs grown on poly-d-lysine (PDL) or on PDL-fibronectin had similar growth rates, whereas supplementation with leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) resulted in significantly slower growth. However, when OB-cNPC cultures were grown on PDL-fibronectin or PDL supplemented with LIF, a greater proportion of cells with neuronal markers were generated upon differentiation.