GM-CSF enhances neural differentiation of bone marrow stromal cells

Recent reports suggest that bone marrow stromal cells may be induced into neural cells both in vivo and in vitro. The factors that regulate the neural differentiation and the mechanism involved, however, remains unclear. Here we demonstrated that granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), a potent hematopoietic factor, was able to enhance the neural differentiation of bone marrow stromal cells. Moreover, we found that GM-CSF receptors are abundantly distributed in the bone marrow stromal cells and GM-CSF significantly upregulated the phosphorylation of cAMP-responsive element binding protein in bone marrow stromal cells. These findings suggest that GM-CSF may activate its receptor and then enhance neural differentiation of bone marrow stromal cells by upregulating phosphorylation of cAMP-responsive element binding protein.