Bone mesenchymal stem cell-conditioned medium decreases the generation of astrocytes during the process of neural stem cells differentiation.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of bone mesenchymal stem cell (BMSC) conditioned medium (CM) and Bone morphogenetic protein-4 (BMP-4) on the generation of astrocytes during the process of NSCs differentiation.

DESIGN

Neural stem cells (NSCs) were grown under different culture conditions.

SETTING

The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.

OUTCOME MEASURES

The study consisted of four groups: NSCs cultured under control conditions (group 1) or with the addition of BMSC-CM (group 2);(BMP-4) (group 3) or both (group 4).The expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) was detected by immunocytochemical staining and Western blotting.

RESULTS

The expression of GFAP was higher in Group3 and lower in Group 2 compared to that in Group 1. The expression of GFAP in Group 4 was intermediate between that of Group 2 and Group 3.

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest that BMSC-CM can decrease the generation of astrocytes and that the inhibition of the (BMP-4) /Smad1/5/8 signaling pathway may be the underlying mechanism. This phenomenon may be mediated by increasing the expression of Smad6.