The Quality of Porcine Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Their Osteo- and Adipogenic Cell Derivatives – The Level of Proapoptotic Bad Protein Expression / Jakość Mezenchymalnych Komórek Macierzystych Świni Oraz Ich Pochodnych Zróżnicowanych W Kierunku Komórek Szeregu Osteo- I Adipogennego – Poziom Ekspresji Proapoptotycznego Białka Bad

The aim of the research was to evaluate the quality of porcine mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and MSC-derived osteoblasts/osteocytes (bone cells) and adipocytes (fat cells). This evaluation was performed on the basis of molecular analysis for proapoptotic BAD protein expression. MSCs isolated from the pig bone marrow were cultured in vitro for five weeks in three types of culture media: differentiating towards the osteoblasts/osteocytes (O) and adipocytes (A) and non-differentiating, control medium (C). In all groups of cells, the relative extent of BAD protein expression was estimated by western blotting. Significant differences in the posttranslational abundance of BAD proteins were noted between MSCs differentiated into the osteogenic and the adipogenic cell lineages (P<0.05). Summarizing the results, we conclude that posttranslational level of BAD protein expression can be used as a reliable marker for assessing the quality of both MSCs and their cell derivatives. Interestingly, the semi-quantitative profile of BAD protein expression in differentiated cells turned out to be lower than that observed in undifferentiated cells, demonstrating that the culture conditions used for pro-osteogenic or pro-adipogenic cellular transformation did not affect negatively the quality of MSCs.