Rat Bone Marrow Stromal Cells Derived Neural Stem Cell-Like Cells Could Differentiate Into Functional Schwann Cell-Like Cells In Vitro

Objective: To induce neural stem cell (NSC)-like cells derived from rat bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) into functional Schwann cell (SC)-like cells.Methods: In this study, rat BMSCs were cultured, identified and converted into NSC-like cells. NSC-like cells were then induced into SC-like cells. The phenotype and functional characteristics of SC-like cells were identified carefully.Results: Rat BMSCs could be converted into NSC-like cells. The NSC-like cells could differentiate not only into neuron-like cells, but also into functional SC-like cells. SC-like cells were bi- or tri-polar in shape and were positive for SC markers p75, GFAP and S-100. Besides these, SC-like cells could express myelin protein p0 when intracellular cAMP was elevated. SC-like cells could also form myelin structures with PC12 cell neurites in vitro.Conclusions: These findings indicated that BMSCs-derived NSC-like cells could differentiate into functional SC-like cells, which may be useful for the treatment of demyelinating diseases of nervous system.