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Updated: Jul 18, 2026
Intracerebral Transplantation and In Vivo Bioluminescence Tracking of Human Neural Progenitor Cells in the Mouse Brain
Published on: January 27, 2022
Bone marrow stromal cells express neural phenotypes in vitro and migrate in brain after transplantation in vivo
Li-Ye Yang1, Tian-Hua Huang, Lian Ma
1Department of Biology, Medical College of Shantou University, Shantou 515031, Guangdong, China.
Objective:
To investigate the differentiation of bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC) into neuron-like cells and to explore their potential use for neural transplantation.
Methods:
BMSC from rats and adult humans were cultured in serum-containing media. Salvia miltiorrhiza was used to induce human BMSC (hBMSC) to differentiate. BMSC were identified with immunocytochemistry. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR was used to examine mRNA expression of neurofilamentl (NF1), nestin and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) in rat BMSC (rBMSC). Rat BMSC labelled by Hoschst33258 were transplanted into striatum of rats to trace migration and distribution.
Results:
rBMSC expressed NSE, NF1 and nestin mRNA, and NF1 mRNA and expression was increased with induction of Salvia miltiorrhiza. A small number of hBMSC were stained by anti-nestin, anti-GFAP and anti-S100. Salvia miltiorrhiza could induce hBMSC to differentiate into neuron-like cells. Some differentiated neuron-like cells, that expressed NSE, beta-tubulin and NF-200, showed typical neuron morphology, but some neuron-like cells also expressed alpha smooth muscle protein, making their neuron identification complicated. rBMSC could migrate and adapted in the host brains after being transplanted.
Conclusion:
Bone marrow stromal cells could express phenotypes of neurons, and Salvia miltiorrhiza could induce hBMSC to differentiate into neuron-like cells. If BMSC could be converted into neurons instead of mesenchymal derivatives, they would be an abundant and accessible cellular source to treat a variety of neurological diseases.
