Resveratrol-induced SIRT1 activation promotes neuronal differentiation of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells

•The expression of neuronal progenitor marker genes is increased by RSV in hBM-MSCs.•Neuron-like morphological changes occur with RSV-pretreatment in hBM-MSCs.•Diverse neuronal markers are increased in MSCs induced with RSV.•hBM-MSCs pre-incubated with RSV more effectively differentiate into neuronal cells. Resveratrol-3,4′,5-trihydroxy-trans-stillbene (resveratrol; RSV), a natural non-flavonoid polyphenol compound, provides protection against stress injury, excessive sunlight, ultraviolet radiation, infections, and invading fungi. There is increasing evidence that resveratrol, a sirtuin1 activator, plays a pivotal role in neuroprotection and neuronal differentiation. In this study, we investigated whether resveratrol induces neuronal differentiation of human bone marrow-mesenchymal stem cells (hBM-MSCs). Quantitative PCR results showed that resveratrol-treated MSCs (RSV-MSCs) had significantly increased expression of the neuroprogenitor markers Nestin, Musashi, CD133, and GFAP. When RSV-MSCs were differentiated with neuronal induction media (RSV-dMSCs), they exhibited a cell body and dendritic morphology similar to neurons. The number and neurite length of these RSV-dMSCs were significantly increased compared to differentiated MSCs (dMSCs). The RSV-dMSCs and dMSCs had significantly increased expression of the neuronal-specific marker genes Nestin, Musashi, CD133, GFAP, NF-M, MAP-2, and KCNH1. The RSV-dMSCs also showed a higher expression of the neuronal marker proteins, Nestin and NF-M, based on immunocytochemical staining and immunoblot analysis. This effect was abolished by the treatment of sirtuin1 inhibitor EX527. Therefore, we have shown that resveratrol treatment, along with the use of neuronal induction media, effectively stimulates neuronal cell differentiation of hBM-MSCs.