Le cellule staminali mesenchimali da tessuto adiposo di cavallo: isolamento, espansione in vitro ed identificazione preliminare in vista di un possibile impiego nella terapia cellulare di lesioni tendinee e legamentose. Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells in the horse: isolation, in vitro expansion and preliminary identification in view of a possible use in cellular therapy of tendon and ligament injuries.

Tendon and ligament injuries are common causes of reduced performances among competitive horses. They are slow healing lesions which have the tendency to scar; this condition makes the horse vulnerable to further injury when it is put back into training. A number of therapies have been tried, but none of them demonstrated to provide a complete anatomic and functional recovery. There has been considerable interest, recently, in the therapeutic effects of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) which are potentially able to replace the damaged cells in injured tendons and ligaments. Fat tissue stroma contains an especially high concentration of MSC which are. also easy to obtain and to expand in vitro. The results of recent clinical studies employing adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells in the therapy of horse tendon and ligament injuries encourage their use in these applications. However, the lack of studies of characterization of these cells in the horse makes empiric their current clinical use. Aim of this work is to report preliminary results concerning isolation and characterization of a pool of stromal cells from horse adipose tissue, similar to those previously described in humans, mice and rats as mesenchymal stem cells. Cells of the vascular-stromal fraction of equine adipose tissue were isolated and grown in vitro. During their expansion, a monolayer of adherent, omogeneous and rapidly proliferating cells progressively selected. These cells were characterized by the expression of the surface antigen CD90 and if diluted to limit concentration, they gave rise to fibroblast-like clonal colonies. Our preliminary observations strongly suggest that, in the horse adipose tissue, a pool of cells does exist showing morphologic, phenotioic and growth features very similar to those of MSC described in other species.