Sca-1~+ cells from mouse fetal liver can differentiate into neurons in vitro / 中国病理生理杂志

ABSTRACT

AIM: To study whether Sca-1 + cells from fetal liver can be induced to differentiate into neuronal cells in vitro. METHODS: Sca-1 + cells from 14 5-days-old murine fetal liver were isolated with a magnetic cell sorting kit, and were cultured in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM)/F12 supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS), and passaged at a ratio of 1∶3 when cells reached more than 80% confluence. The 5 passage cells were induced by 10 -3 mol/L ?-mercaptoethanol (?-ME) and 5 ?10 -7 mol/L all-trans-retinoic acid (RA) for 24 hours, and then incubated in serum-free medium for 5 hours to 5 days. The characteristics of treated cells were assayed by immunocytochemistry staining analysis at 5 hours, or 5 days.RESULTS: Cells treated with ?-ME and RA exhibited neuronal phenotype and expressed neuron-specific protein such as neuron-specific nuclear protein (NeuN), neuronfilament-M, and neuron-specific tubulin-1 (TuJ-1) but not tau, MAP-2, or the astrocyte-specific marker glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP).CONCLUSION: Sca-1 + cells from fetal liver, of which most are regarded as hematopoietic stem cells, could differentiate into early immature neuronal cells in vitro . These findings suggest that Sca-1 + cells from fetal liver may be an alternative source in cell therapy and gene therapy of neural dysfunction.