[Induced differentiation of rabbit bone marrow stromal cells into neuron-like cells].

Objective: To study whether the neuron-like cells derived from bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) may excrete amino acids with neurobiological activities and possess the biochemical characteristics of neurons.

Method: Under sterile condition, BMSCs from New Zealand rabbits were purified by gradient density centrifugation, and were induced to differentiate into neural stem cells and neuronal-like cells in the culture medium for neural stem cells containing retinoic acid (RA, 0.5 microg/ml) and glial-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF, 20 ng/ml). The differentiated cells were then examined with immunocytochemical method and high-performance liquid chromatograpy (HPLC).

Results: The round and enlarged BMSCs on day 10 of cell culture were positive for nestin, and on day 20, the cells with RA+GDNF stimulation differentiated into neuron-like cells with long protrusions and presented neuron-specific enolase (NSE) antigen. HPLC identified high levels of amino acids like Asp, Glu, Gly and Ala in the differentiated cells (P<0.01).

Conclusions: Rabbit BMSCs may proliferate in vitro as from nestin-positive cells and differentiate into NSE-positive cells containing high levels of excitatory and inhibitory amino acid neurotransmitters. RA and GDNF are important promoters for in vitro differentiation of the BMSCs toward neural stem cells.