title: A Potential Excitability Was Induced by Basic Fibroblast Growth Factor during Early Differentiation of Neurons from Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells in vitro.
abstract: We report that basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) induces the release of glutamate in ES-derived neurons during early stages of differentiation. Changes of Ca2+concentration labeled by fluorescence intensity occurred in response to minimal concentrations of glutamate. The Ca2+concentration was changed more rapidly by bFGF than by glutamate during the early stages of differentiation of ES-derived neurons. High concentrations of the inhibitor MK801, a N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist applied before bFGF stimulation caused a dramatic decrease of fluorescence intensity in neurons derived from both hippocampal and ES cells. These results showed that bFGF induces glutamate release and an increase of [Ca2+] in neurons during early stages of differentiation, and that the increase of [Ca2+] can be inhibited by MK801. Therefore, we concluded that bFGF serves not only as a neurotrophin but also as a stimulator of excitability during the differentiation of ES cells into neurons.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, Zhejiang University, Zheda Road 38, 310027 Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Zhang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Enming
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liangqiang
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xiaoxiang