Abstract

In the den, hibernating brown bears do not develop tissue atrophy or organ damage, despite almost no physical activity. Mesenchymal stem cells could play an important role in tissue repair and regeneration in brown bears. Our objective was to determine if adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ASCs) can be recovered from wild Scandinavian brown bears and characterize their differentiation potential. Following immobilization of wild brown bears 7-10 days after leaving the den in mid-April, adipose tissue biopsies were obtained. ASCs were recovered from 6 bears, and shown to be able to undergo adipogenesis and osteogenesis in monolayer cultures and chondrogenesis in pellet cultures. Remarkably, when grown in standard cell culture medium in monolayer cultures, ASCs from yearlings spontaneously formed bone-like nodules surrounded by cartilaginous deposits, suggesting differentiation into osteogenic and chondrogenic lineages. This ability appears to be lost gradually with age. This is the first study to demonstrate stem cell recovery and growth from brown bears, and it is the first report of ASCs spontaneously forming extracellular matrix characteristic of bone and cartilage in the absence of specific inducers. These findings could have implications for the use of hibernating brown bears as a model to study disuse osteoporosis. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Published in

Stem Cell Research
2011, Volume: 7, number: 1, pages: 89-95

SLU Authors

• Fahlman, Åsa

  • Department of Clinical Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • University of Calgary

• Arnemo, Jon

  • Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Hedmark University College

UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scr.2011.03.003

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/33711