title: Emergence of signs of neural cells after exposure of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells to fetal brain extract.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Nowadays much effort is being invested in order to diagnose the mechanisms involved in neural differentiation. By clarifying this, making desired neural cellsin vitroand applying them into diverse neurological disorders suffered from neural cell malfunctions could be a feasible choice. Thus, the present study assessed the capability of fetal brain extract (FBE) to induce rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) toward neural cells.
  
  
  METHODS
  For this purpose, BM-MSCs were collected from rats and cultured and their mesenchymal properties were confirmed. After exposure of the BM-MSCs to fetal brain extract, the cells were evaluated and harvested at days 3 and 7 after treatment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The BM-MSCs that were exposed to FBE changed their appearance dramatically from spindle shape to cells with dendrite-like processes. Those neural like processes were absent in the control group. In addition, a neural specific marker, vimentin, was expressed significantly in the treatment group but not in the negative control group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study presented the FBE as a natural neural differentiation agent, which probably has required factors for making neurons. In addition, vimentin overexpression was observed in the treated group which confirms neuron-like cell differentiation of BM-MSCs after induction.
authors.affiliation: Cardiovascular Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Iman Razeghian
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: Jahromi
authors.affiliation: Stem Cells Technology Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Davood
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mehrabani
authors.affiliation: Division of Biotechnology, Department of Pathobiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mohammadi
authors.affiliation: Division of Biotechnology, Department of Pathobiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Mahdi Ghahramani
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Seno
authors.affiliation: Stem Cells Technology Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran; Department of Medical Genetics, School of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dianatpour
authors.affiliation: Stem Cells Technology Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Shahrokh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zare
authors.affiliation: Stem Cells Technology Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Amin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tamadon
keywords: Bone marrow-mesenchymal- stem cells; Differentiation; Fetal brain extract; Neural cell; Vimentin