Abstract

We have previously reported the successful harvest of adipose from the post nuchal fat pad of bottlenose dolphins. Cells isolated from the digestion of dolphin adipose have been expanded in cell culture to passage 6 and have shown to be able to differentiate into multiple cell lineages, including adipogenic, chondrogenic, neurogenic and osteogenic cells. Furthermore, these cells have been characterized using prototypical stem cell markers; key proteins expressed on the outer surface of the cells. Termed CD markers, for cluster of differentiation, these protein epitopes have been identified on dolphin cells and provide further evidence that the cells isolated from the digestion of dolphin adipose are indeed stem cells. Additionally, dolphin cultured stem cells were analyzed for cDNA sequences that are similar to known human stem cell genes using a PCR mesenchymal stem cell gene array. Select gene hits were verified using quantitative PCR. Since the cells isolated from the digestion of dolphin adipose are plastic-adherent, able to differentiate into multiple cell types, express stem cell genes and proteins on the surface of the cells, we provide phenotypic and genotypic evidence that the cells isolated from dolphin adipose can be termed stem cells. The positive identification of these adipose derived stem cells allows for the exciting field of regenerative medicine to be applied to this marine mammal.

Acknowledgements

We thank our colleagues, staff, technicians, trainers, and research department at the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program and the U.S. Army Animal Care Specialists. We also thank the Navy's Institutional Animal Use and Care Committee and the Navy Bureau of Medicine for their oversight of and guidance on this study. This work was funded by the Office of Naval Research contract N00014-09-C-0378.