Canine Adult Adipose Tissue-Derived Multipotent Stromal Cell Isolation, Characterization, and Differentiation

Adult mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs) are a standard component of de novo tissue generation to treat and study injury, disease, and degeneration. Canine patients constitute a major component of veterinary practice, and dogs share numerous pathologic conditions with humans. The relative abundance of adipose-derived stromal/stem cells (ASCs) in various canine adipose tissue depots is well described. Refined isolation, characterization, and differentiation techniques contribute to the collective knowledge of ASC phenotypes and subpopulations for specific tissue targets. Continued efforts to advance the knowledge of canine ASC behavior in vivo are critical to harnessing the full potential of primary cell isolates. This chapter contains a description of techniques to isolate, characterize, and differentiate canine ASCs.