ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Regenerative Medicine
Characterisation and priming of equine muscle-derived mesenchymal stem cells to enhance their anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory profiles
Provisionally accepted
Muhammad A. Shahid1
Albert Sole-Guitart1
François-René Bertin1,2Olivier Simon3Justine Ceusters4
Didier Serteyn4
Deanne Jeanette Whitworth1*- 1The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- 2Purdue University, West Lafayette, United States
- 3The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
- 4Universite de Liege, Liège, Belgium
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A minimally invasive microbiopsy-based method for the isolation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from equine skeletal muscle (M-MSCs) provides a readily accessible source of MSCs for clinical applications. We examined the expression of genes associated with immunomodulation and anti-inflammatory pathways, in addition to those of growth factors and the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules I and II, at constitutive levels and after priming with inflammatory cytokines, an immunostimulant, and heat-shocking. While there was notable variation between the M-MSCs from each of the horses in their constitutive expression of many of the genes examined, and in their responses to the different priming methods, priming with TNF-α and IFN-γ increased the expression of genes associated with anti-inflammatory pathways, immunomodulation, and tissue repair. M-MSCs from all horses constitutively expressed MHC-I and lacked expression of MHC-II; only heat-shocking induced the expression of MHC-II. The responses to priming, together with their ease of harvesting, supports further investigation into the use of M-MSCs as a therapy for inflammatory and immune-mediated conditions in the horse. However, due to the variability between M-MSCs from different individuals, characterisation of the cells before autologous administration, and the selection of those cells most fit-for-purpose in the case of allogeneic transfer, is recommended.
Keywords: anti-inflammatory, horse, Immunomodulation, MSCs, priming
Received: 07 Nov 2025; Accepted: 09 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shahid, Sole-Guitart, Bertin, Simon, Ceusters, Serteyn and Whitworth. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Deanne Jeanette Whitworth
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