Isolation, Culture and Characterization of Chicken Primordial Germ Cells

Nowadays, production of recombinant proteins in eukaryotes is gaining good deal of attention. Transgenic chicken as a eukaryotic system has a high potential for producing recombinant proteins. Post-translational changes, especially glycosylation, are characteristic of the eukaryotic proteins. In practice we need to choose a proper expressing host when considering over-expression of a recombinant protein. Chickens are among the well-considered candidates for such application. Production of transgenic chickens could be achieved in different ways, including application of primordial germ cells. Primordial germ cells are progenitor of sperm and ovum. These cells are round, with a big nucleus and a cytoplasm with lipid and glycogen particles. The first step for having transgenic chickens is isolation and culture of the primordial gem cells. In the present study, these cells were isolated by centrifugation method in presence of ficoll and using magnetic cell sorting, and were cultured in optimal culture medium. These cells were finally characterized with defined methods, like Periodic acid-schiff staining, alkaline phosphates activity assessment, and antibody staining.