title: The differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells into inner ear hair cell-like cells in vitro.
abstract: CONCLUSIONS
  Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have the ability to differentiate into hair cells, and this method of culturing MSCs provides a useful tool for studies on mammalian cochlear hair cell regeneration.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate a method to induce bone marrow MSCs to differentiate into inner ear hair cells.
  
  
  METHODS
  Rat bone marrow MSCs were isolated from healthy rats and cultured in vitro. To make sure that the cultured cells were bone marrow MSCs, the expression of MSC markers such as SH2, CD31, CD34, and CD44 genes on the cultured cells was assessed by RT-PCR. Adipogenic cells and osteogenic cells were induced by the differentiation of the cultured cells, respectively, suggesting that the cultured cells have the characteristic of pluripotent differentiation. Then they were induced to differentiate into neural stem cells and hair cell progenitor cells. Immunohistochemistry experiments were carried out to detect the expression of molecular markers. Scanning electron microscope samples were prepared for observation of the morphology of the cells.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Rat bone marrow MSCs were successfully isolated, purified, cultured, and identified in vitro. They were also successfully induced to differentiate into neural progenitor cells and then hair cell-like cells that expressed myosin VIIa.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Institute of Otolaryngology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: He
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Li-Dong
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Jian-He
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Li-Li
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Wei-Wei
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Hui-Zhan
authors.initials: HZ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Suo-Qiang
authors.initials: SQ
authors.lastname: Zhai
authors.forename: Shi-Ming
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells / Q000502:physiology; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D006199:Hair Cells, Auditory, Inner / Q000166:cytology*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D059630:Mesenchymal Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats