›› 2013, Vol. ›› Issue (5): 115-119.

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Observation of Growth Characteristics and Ultrastructure in GFP-labeled Bovine Mammary Epithelial Cells

LI Ji-xia, GE Xiu-guo, WANG Yi-min, DING Xiang-bin, GUO Hong   

  1. College of Animal Science, Tianjin Agricultural University, Tianjin 300384, China
  • Received:2012-10-22 Online:2013-05-20 Published:2013-05-27

Abstract: The objective of this assay was to describe the effect of green fluorescent protein (GFP) on bovine mammary epithelial cell (MECs) growth morphology and ultrastructure. After bovine MECs were isolated, cultured and identificated, these cells were marked with GFP. The cellular growth morphology was observed after labeling,and the ultrathin sections were produced, cellular ultrastructure was observed by transmission electron microscopy. Subsequently the karyotype was analyzed. The growth morphology of typical "cobble-stone" monolayer was observed in bovine MECs labeled with GFP (named GFP-MECs) in cytoplasm, which similar to the MECs untransfected and both expressed the broad-spectrum keratin. On the ultrastructure, bovine GFP-MECs and MECs both had large and prominent nucleoli and clear nuclear membrane, and the huge amount of heterochromatin was concentrated in the nucleus, which represented the stability of the genetic material. Cellular surface microvilli developed strongly showed that energy or information exchange was active. Cytoplasm was rich in mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum and lipid droplets suggested cell nutrients metabolism was strong. Karyotype analysis showed GFP-MECs were euploid karyotype. The results indicated that the green fluorescent protein could be used to label bovine MECs, and could not cause significant impact on the growth activity and ultrastructure.

Key words: green fluorescent protein; bovine; mammary epithelial cells; ultrastructure; karyotype analysis

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