title: Melatonin Increases Oligodendrocyte Differentiation in Cultured Neural Stem Cells.
abstract: Neural stem cell (NSC) culture is a remarkable tool to investigate the potential therapeutic benefits of drugs in neurological diseases. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of melatonin on proliferation and differentiation of NSCs in vitro. NSCs were isolated and expanded from mouse embryonic E14 cortex, and the effect of various concentrations of melatonin (0.05, 0.1, 0.5, 1, 5 and 10 μM) on NSC proliferation was assessed by MTT and neurosphere assay. Results showed that melatonin significantly increased NSC viability and NSC proliferation in a dose-dependent manner, in comparison to controls. Similarly, neurosphere formation frequency and cell counts increased significantly with increasing melatonin concentrations and reached its peak at 0.5 μM, in comparison to controls. Moreover, NSCs treated with either low (0.05 µM) or high concentrations (5 µM) of melatonin showed that the mean percentage of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) positive cells were not significantly different in PDGF or melatonin at 5 μM, in comparison to controls. However, low melatonin concentrations (0.05 µM) showed a slight significant increase in comparison to controls and PDGF. On the other hand, both concentrations of melatonin treatment significantly increased the percentage of myelin basic protein (MBP) positive cells (oligodendrocytes), in comparison to controls and to PDGF. Our results demonstrated, for the first time, that melatonin increased oligodendrocyte differentiation from NSCs. These results suggest that melatonin might have a potential therapeutic effect for some neurological diseases that involve oligodendrocyte and myelin pathologies.
authors.affiliation: Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Yasuj University of Medical Sciences, Yasuj, Iran.
authors.forename: Majid
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ghareghani
authors.affiliation: Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Yasuj University of Medical Sciences, Yasuj, Iran.
authors.forename: Heibatollah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sadeghi
authors.affiliation: ER045, Laboratory of Stem Cells, DSST, Biology Department, Faculty of Sciences-I, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Kazem
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zibara
authors.affiliation: Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Yasuj University of Medical Sciences, Yasuj, Iran.
authors.forename: Nazanin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Danaei
authors.affiliation: Neural Stem Cell and Regenerative Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Anatomical Sciences, Shiraz School of Medicine & Shiraz Stem Cell Institute, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. azarihasan@sums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Hassan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Azari
authors.affiliation: Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Yasuj University of Medical Sciences, Yasuj, Iran. amirghanbari52@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Amir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ghanbari
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D008550:Melatonin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D058953:Neural Stem Cells / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D055495:Neurogenesis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D009836:Oligodendroglia / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D000975:Antioxidants; D008550:Melatonin
keywords: Embryonic neural stem cells; Melatonin; Oligodendrocytes