Neural Differentiation of Mouse Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Treated with Sex Steroid Hormones and Basic Fibroblast Growth Factor

Objective: there are several factors, like environmental agents, neurotrophic factors,serotonin and some hormones such as estrogen, affecting neurogenesis and neural differentiation.regarding to importance of proliferation and regeneration in central nervoussystem, and a progressive increase in neurodegenerative diseases, cell therapy is anattractive approach in neuroscience. the aim of the present study was to investigate theeffects of sex steroid hormones and basic fibroblast growth factor (bfgf) on neuronal differentiationof mouse bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (bm-mscs).materials and methods: this experimental study was established in kharazmi university.bm was isolated from the bones of femur and tibia of 4-6-week old naval medicalresearch institute (nmri) mice, and the cells were cultured. the cells were divided intofollowing 4 groups based on the applied treatments: i. control (no treatment), ii. steroidhormones (b-estradiol, progesterone and testosterone), iii. bfgf and iv. combination ofsteroid hormones and bfgf. immunocytochemistry and flow cytometery analyses wereapplied for beta iii-tubulin (b-iii tubulin) and microtubule-associated proteins-2 (map-2) in4 days of treatment for all groups.results: the cells treated with combination of bfgf and steroid hormones representedmore expressions of neural markers as compared to control and to other two groupstreated with either bfgf or steroid hormones.conclusion: this study showed that bm-mscs can express specific neural markers afterreceiving bfgf pretreatment that was followed by sex steroid hormones treatment. moreinvestigations are necessary to specify whether steroid hormones and bfgf can be consideredfor treatment of cns diseases and disorders.