Objective: Studying the behavior of mesenchymal stem cells is important for understanding some physiological and pathological processes as well as long-term preservation of these cells in vitro. The neck area of mouse contains a wide variety of different organs and tissues and extracellular matrices. In the present study, the interaction of mouse bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) with mouse neck scaffolds was performed in order to have a better understanding of the behavior of mesenchymal stem cells.

Materials and methods: The neck areas of 9 two-week-old Syrian mice were cut into pieces with 4 mm thickness. Decellularization process was carried through snap freeze-thaw cycles followed by sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) treatments. After confirmation of acellularization through histological studies and DNA extraction process, scaffolds were co-cultured with mouse (BM-MSCs) up to 21 days, in vitro.

Results: As indicated by histological studies and scanning of electron microscopy, stem cells migrate into the cartilage scaffold on third, seventh and fourteenth days of culture. Stem cells were divided on these days. On the fourteenth day of culture, migration to epidermal and blood vascular scaffolds was also observed. On the twenty-first day of culture, cells were observed only in the cartilage scaffold, while showing morphological differentiation.

Conclusion: As indicated by the results of the present study, mouse neck scaffold, due to its diverse extracellular matrices, is a suitable structure for studying some cellular behaviors such as migration, cell division and cell differentiation. However, more molecular studies are needed to determine the extent of this differentiation.

Keywords: Natural scaffold, Cell behaviors, Cell-matrix interaction, Experimental model scaffolding, mouse neck area