Original articleDerivation and characterization of sheep bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells induced with telomerase reverse transcriptase

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) are a type of adult stem cells with a wide range of potential applications. However, BMSCs have a limited life cycle under normal culturing conditions, which has hindered further study and application. Many studies have confirmed that cells modified by telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) can maintain the ability to proliferate in vitro over a long period of time. In this study, we constructed a gene expression vector to transfer TERT into sheep BMSCs, and evaluated whether the TERT cell strain was successfully transferred. The abilities of cell proliferation and differentiation were evaluated using the methods including growth curve determination, inheritance stability analysis, multi-directional induction and so on, and the results showed that the cell strain can be cultured to 40 generations, with a normal karyotype rate maintained at 88.24%, and that the cell strain can be transferred and differentiated into neurocytes and lipocytes, proving that it retains the multi-directional transdifferentiation ability.