OBJECTIVETo investigate the effects of GM1 on inducing adult rat bone marrow stromal cells (MSCs) to form neural progenitor cells and their differentiation.

METHODSPurified MSCs were induced by different components of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) alone, GM1 alone or combination of bFGF with GM1. After 3 days' incubation, fibronectin and collagen I were detected with immunocytochemistry, and nestin was detected with immunofluorescence. Neuron-specific enolase (NSE), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and galactose cerebroside (GalC) were detected with immunocytochemistry after 7 days' incubation.

RESULTSAfter induction with bFGF alone or combination of bFGF and GM1, some MSCs exhibited the phenotypes of neural progenitor cells, and then neurons and astrocytes. In these two groups, the positive cells for fibronectin and collagen I decreased markedly after 3 days' induction. At the same time, the positive cells for nestin increased markedly. After 7 days' induction, NSE and GFAP-positive cells increased significantly. Furthermore, the addition of bFGF and GM1 caused the maximal variation. However, addition of GM1 alone had no inductive effects.

CONCLUSIONSCombination of bFGF with GM1 may synergistically promote the transformation of MSCs and differentiation into neurons and astrocyte-like cells. The results suggest a promising route for the application of MSCs.