Lab Work

This past week in the lab we helped Dr. Barcelo process Lil's amniotic fluid. Some of the things we learned from him included pipetting, culturing cells, and how to use filters. Dr. Barcelo also taught us the three stages of parturition. Before we could begin any lab work, we had to ensure the lab was spick and span, this meant mopping and spraying all counters. The reason behind this is because a dirty lab could contaminate the product. If the tainted product is used on a patient, then they might develop infections. So it is best to keep the lab clean before any work begins. We also helped package some of the product to be shipped out to veterinarians all across the country.

Lil's Amnion

Cell Incubator

Cell Culture Plates

Filtering amniotic fluid

The Ames Ranch

Lil and her Foal

On the Ames Ranch, we currently have three horses, Lil, Lil's filly, and Cheyenne. Lil gave birth during the afternoon on Friday, February 23. She gave birth a whopping 15 days late! Cheyenne is next up and we are hoping she will give birth sometime within the next few days.

Cheyenne

The next day our tasks at the ranch included washing the new mother and her baby before we sent them back home with their owner. Lil normally is a very calm horse and gets spooked by nothing. However, when we tried bathing her, she would just not stand still. She was very alert and kept moving around, always making sure to keep her daughter insight. It must have been her new maternal instincts taking over!

Cheyenne says "Hi!"

Cheyenne was extremely upset to see her friend leave. Horses are known to be social animals and form close bonds with other horses that they are kept in proximity with. After Lil left, Cheyenne started bucking, neighing, and banging her gate trying to figure out where her friend went. However, Cheyenne would not be alone very long. A new mare came in later that day. I will take a photo of her, and tell you all more about her after Saturday!

First Post - Abstract

The use of stem cells for regenerative therapy is still a developing scientific field. Currently, stem cells can be used to treat a variety of injuries. Anicell Biotech is also interested in healing injuries; however, they are going a different route. Rather than using everyday bone marrow stem cells, Anicell uses amniotic components (amnion is the innermost membrane that encloses the embryo of a mammal and contains a high number of stem cells). Amnion is being used to help dogs and horses recover from what once used to be considered debilitating injuries.
Anicell is one of the few companies using amniotic stem cells for regenerative purposes. I am interested in finding out whether amniotic stem cells are more efficient at wound healing than their bone marrow counterparts.
If equine amniotic cells prove to be more effective than stem cells, then veterinarians will switch to only using equine amniotic stem cells and thus can improve the quality of their patients’ lives by being better able to treat them.