ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The establishment of amniotic fluid derived stem cells (AFS) can provide an individual reserve for cell therapy in nerve degenerative diseases.OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of Noggin and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) on AFS differentiation into neural cells.METHODS: Samples of amniotic fluid were obtained through amniocentesis by ultrasound from gestational age of 16-22 weeks for routine prenatal diagnosis. AFS were obtained from the 2~(nd) trimester amniotic fluid samples by immunomagnetic beads selection using CD117 antibody, and identified the surface antigen expression by flow cytometry after amplification. The 3~(rd) generation of AFS with good growth state were induced to differentiate into nerve cells, which were divided into the blank control,based-induced, Noggin-induced and bFGF-induced groups. The induced cell morphology was observed under inverted phase contrast microscopy, and the expression of nestin, β-Ⅲ tubulin and neurofilament in the induced cells was measured by using cell immunofluorescence detection.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Flow cytometry analysis indicated that most of AFS cells expressed CD44 and HLA-ABC, but negative for CD45 and HLA-DR. At 2 weeks after induction, the cell morphology exhibited significant changes with increased Nestin,β-Ⅲ tubulin and NF-positive rates in the bFGF-induced group. However, it had no significant difference in the Noggin-induced group and the based-induced group. It revealed that bFGF plays a vital role in the AFS differentiated into nerve cells.