Nanomedicine and Tissue Engineering Research Center, Shaheed Beheshti Medical University, Tehran, Iran.
Eur Cell Mater. 2010 Jan 14;19:22-9. doi: 10.22203/ecm.v019a03.
The differentiation of neural cells from embryonic stem cells is influenced by several growth factors. Amniotic epithelial cells (AECs) share many of the same characteristics as embryonic stem cells, and therefore those factors may similarly affect the derivation of neural cells from AECs. In this study, we examined the differentiation of neural cells in vitro from AECs following AECs treatment with retinoic acid (RA), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) as well as investigation of bFGF withdrawal on neuronal differentiation. We also studied whether blocking bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling using its antagonist, noggin, affects the derivation of neuronal cells from AECs. The effects of serum on the rate of neural markers expression were also examined. Analysis of AECs derived neurons was performed at some neural markers expression level by immunocytochemistry. All cultures treated with noggin showed the higher levels of neural markers expression than noggin free cultures. Combined treatment with bFGF and RA showed the highest level of neural markers in all treatment groups with or without noggin. bFGF withdrawal did not promote expression of neural markers, while its maintenance increased the expression of these markers. Serum-free condition decreased the viability of cells but increased the rate of neural markers expression. These results show the capability of AECs to express neural cell markers and this ability is affected by some factors including serum, noggin, bFGF and RA.
胚胎干细胞的神经细胞分化受多种生长因子影响。羊膜上皮细胞 (AEC) 与胚胎干细胞具有许多相同的特征，因此这些因素可能同样影响 AEC 向神经细胞的分化。在这项研究中，我们研究了 AEC 经维甲酸 (RA)、碱性成纤维细胞生长因子 (bFGF) 处理以及 bFGF 撤去对神经分化的影响后体外 AEC 向神经细胞分化的情况。我们还研究了使用其拮抗剂 noggin 阻断骨形态发生蛋白 (BMP) 信号是否会影响 AEC 向神经元细胞的分化。我们还研究了血清对神经标志物表达率的影响。通过免疫细胞化学分析了一些神经标志物表达水平的 AEC 衍生神经元。与 noggin 自由培养相比，所有用 noggin 处理的培养物均显示出更高水平的神经标志物表达。bFGF 和 RA 的联合处理在有或没有 noggin 的所有处理组中均显示出最高水平的神经标志物。bFGF 撤去并没有促进神经标志物的表达，而其维持则增加了这些标志物的表达。无血清条件降低了细胞的活力，但增加了神经标志物的表达率。这些结果表明 AEC 具有表达神经细胞标志物的能力，这种能力受到一些因素的影响，包括血清、noggin、bFGF 和 RA。
