The effect of bone marrow stromal cells on neuronal differentiation of mesencephalic neural stem cells in Sprague–Dawley rats

There are numerous parallels between the heamatolymphopoietic and nervous systems in terms of the mechanisms regulating their development. We proposed that neural stem cells (NSCs) may respond to the microenvironmental signals provided by bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) which regulate the differentiation and maturation of hematolymphopoietic stem cells. First, we isolated and proliferated BMSCs from the femur and tibia, and NSCs from the midbrain of Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats, and then investigated the effects of BMSCs on the differentiation of NSCs into neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes by directly plating neurospheres on BMSC monolayers in serum-free conditions. The results confirmed that BMSCs induced NSCs to differentiate selectively into neurons. The percentage of neurons significantly increased in 7 days in vitro co-cultures of NSCs and BMSCs as compared to NSCs cultures alone. When the duration of the cultures was extended to 12 days in vitro, BMSCs enhanced the survival of neurons derived from these NSCs; our investigation then focused on the underlying mechanism for this effect of BMSCs. NSCs were cultured with BMSC conditioned-medium and co-cultured with membrane fragments of live BMSCs or paraformaldehyde fixed BMSCs, the inducing activity of BMSCs was solely detectable in BMSC conditioned-medium, indicating that soluble factors secreted by BMSCs were responsible for its effect on the neuronal differentiation of NSCs. Therefore, BMSCs may provide a powerful tool for therapeutic neurological applications.