Magnesium promotes the viability and induces differentiation of neural stem cells both in vitro and in vivo.

OBJECTIVE

Neural stem cells (NSCs) are multipotent stem cells that generating various neural cells, including neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. This showed that NSCs is an ideal candidate in the application of neural disease treatment. In the current study, we established a simple and efficient method to promote the viability and induce the differentiation of NSCs by stimulating with magnesium.

METHODS

The proliferation and differentiation of NSCs was determined by MTT assay and immunostaining. The behavior alteration was measured by rotorod test and Morris water maze.

RESULTS

Magnesium enhanced proliferation in NSCs. The ratio of Nestin+, Ki67+ and GFAP+ progenitor cells was increased in the presence of magnesium. Besides, magnesium induced the glial differentiation instead of neuronal differentiation in NSCs. By contrast, transplantation of Mg2+-treated NSCs in vivo generated more neurons. In established PD models, transplantation of Mg2+-treated NSCs could improve the symptoms and recover the memory.

CONCLUSION

We established a simple and efficient way to promote the proliferation and induce the differentiation of NSCs. More importantly, this may also facilitate to develop a new method to neural disorder treatment.