Skin serves as an easily accessible source of multipotent stem cells with potential for cellular therapies. In pigs, stem cells from skin tissues of fetal and adult origins have been demonstrated as either floating spheres (cell aggregates) or adherent spindle-shaped mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-like cells depending on culture conditions. The cells isolated from the epidermis and dermis of porcine skin showed plastic adherent growth in the presence of serum and positively expressed a range of surface and intracellular markers that are considered to be specific for MSCs. The properties of primitive stem cells have been observed with the expression of alkaline phosphatase and markers related to pluripotency. Further, studies have shown the ability of skin-derived MSCs to differentiate in vitro along mesodermal, neuronal and germ-line lineages. Moreover, preclinical studies have also been performed to assess their in vivo potential, and the findings appear to be effective in tissue regeneration at the defected site after transplantation. The present review describes the recent progress on the biological features of porcine skin-derived MSCs as adherent cells, and summarizes their potential in advancing stem cell based therapies.

ABSTRACT   INTRODUCTION    PHENOTYPIC CHARACTERIZATION, ALKALINEPHOSPHATASE (AP) ACTIVITY AND EXPRESSION OF PLURIPOTENT MARKERS    ISOLATION, CULTURE AND EXPANSION POTENTIAL   IN VITRO MULTILINEAGE DIFFERENTIATION POTENTIAL    Osteogenic Differentiation    Adipogenic Differentiation    Chondrogenic Differentiation    Neural Differentiation    Differentiation into Oocyte-Like Cells (OLCs)    Potential of Skin-Derived MSCs for Therapeutic Applications    Conclusions and Future Research   REFERENCES

• B. Mohana Kumar(Department of OBS/Theriogenology and Biotechnology, College of Veterinary Medicine,)
• Rajreddy Patil(Department of OBS/Theriogenology and Biotechnology, College of Veterinary Medicine,)
• Sung-Lim Lee(Department of OBS/Theriogenology and Biotechnology, College of Veterinary Medicine,)
• Gyu-Jin Rho(Department of OBS/Theriogenology and Biotechnology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Research Institute of Life Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 660-701, Korea) Corresponding author