Recent findings suggest that mammalian amniotic fluid (AF) is a source of multipotent stem cells (SCs), which can be used in regenerative medicine and assisted reproduction. We report the isolation, culture and characterization of amniotic fluid-derived cells from pregnant water buffalo uterus. These undifferentiated AF cells expanded without feeder layer over a period of 100 days up to passages 20 and the expression of alkaline phosphatase (AP), Oct-4, Nanog and Sox-2, GAPDH and β-actin could be detected by RT-PCR. The cells exhibited uniform morphology and normal chromosome number. The up-regulation or down-regulation of transcription factors of each gene varied with passage number. We conclude that putative bubaline AF cells can be cultured and maintained in vitro for a prolonged period and offer a potential source of multipotent cells for applications including assisted reproduction in buffalo.
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