Differentiation of human adipose stem cells into neural phenotype by neuroblastoma- or olfactory ensheathing cells-conditioned medium

Olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) are known to be capable of continuous neurogenesis throughout lifetime and are a source of multiple trophic factors important in central nervous system regeneration. B104 neuroblastoma cells are recognized to induce differentiation of neural stem cells into oligodendrocyte precursor cells. Therefore, the aim of this study was to verify if conditioned medium (CM) obtained from OECs or B104 cells was capable of inducing differentiation of adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AT-MSCs) to a neuronal phenotype. In order to this goal, immunocytochemical procedures and flow cytometry analysis were used and some neural markers, as nestin, protein gene product 9.5 (PGP 9.5), microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), and neuron cell surface antigen (A2B5) were examined 24 h and 7 days after the treatment. The results showed that both OECs- or B104-CM treated AT-MSCs express markers of progenitor and mature neurons (nestin, PGP 9.5 and MAP2) in time-dependent manner, display morphological features resembling neuronal cells, and result negative for GFAP and A2B5, astrocyte and oligodendrocyte markers, respectively. This study demonstrated that AT-MSCs can be influenced by the environment, indicating that these cells can respond to environmental cues also versus a neuronal phenotype.