Morphological study on in vitro inducement and differentiation of nerve cells derived from rat BMSC

    YUAN Jun, XU Ruª²Xiang, JIANG Xiaoª²Dan, HUANG Tao, CAI Yingª²Qian, ZOU Yuª²Xi, DU Mouª²Xuan

    Neuromedical Institute, Zhujiang Hospital, South Medical University, Guangzhou 510282, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To explore the possibilities of differentiating bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC) into nerve cells (NC) and to establish the method and condition of BMSC culture in vitro, so as to use the NC derived from BMSC as germ cells in tissueª²engineering. METHODS: Under sterile conditions, bone marrow stem cells, from bone marrow of SD rat and separated by gradient density centrifugation, were cultured, induced and differentiated into NSC and neuronalª²like cells with cytokines consisting of retinoic acid, glialª²derived neurotrophic factor and special medium confected in our laboratory (patent number: 02134314.4). RESULTS: When BMSC were proliferatively cultured for 24-72 h, cleavage phase and clusterª²like clones were seen. When they were cultured in the proliferation medium, the cells could be cloned, which was one of characters of stem cells. On the 10th d after adding inducing factors into the culture medium, the nerve cells or neuronª²like cells appeared. CONCLUSION: BMSC can differentiate into some cells with characteristics of nervous cells. ......