Effect of Staurosporine on Neural Differentiation of Cd 133^+ Umbilical Cord Blood Cells

Objective: cd133+umbilical cord blood cells were identified as a hematopoieticstem cell which has the capacity for extensive self-renewal and differentiation.the aim of this study was to identify the effect of staurosporine (sts), a wellknownprotein kinase inhibitor on differentiation of cd133+ cells into neuralcells.materials and methods: cd1 33+ cells were enriched by immunomagneticbeads from human mononuclear cells of umbilical cord blood and the purityof higher than 94% was achieved by flowcytometry. induction of differentiationwas performed by addition of sts (12.5, 25, and 50 nm). the differentiatedcells were evaluated by immunofluorescence and rt-pcr for neuron-specificproteins and transcripts.results: sts-treated cd133+cells expressed mrna transcripts for neuronspecificneurofilament protein (nfm), and several basic helix-loop-helix(bhlh) transcription factors important for early neurogenesis, including otx2,wnt1j and hash1 . the structural proteins characteristics of neurons includingbeta-tubulinlll and microtubule-associated protein-2 (map-2), were shown byimmunocytochemistry. sts-treated cd133+cells also expressed the astrocytespecificmarker, glial fibrillary acidic protein (gfap) by immunofluorescence.conclusion: the human cord blood-derived cd133+hematopoietic stem cellscould differentiate into neural cell types of neuron-like cells and astrocytes bysts treatment.