Investigating the neuroglial differentiation effect of neuroblastoma conditioned medium in human endometrial stem cells cultured on 3D nanofibrous scaffold

Abstract

Neural tissue engineering is an important area of research in the field of tissue-engineering especially for neurodegenerative disease such as spinal cord injury. The differentiation capacity of human endometrial stem cells (hEnSCs) into neuronal cells has yet to be elucidated. Here, the major aim of the present study was to investigate the differentiation ability of hEnSCs cultured on polylactic acid/chitosan (PLA/CS) nanofibrous scaffold into neuroglial cells in response to conditioned medium of BE(2)-C human neuroblastoma cells and growth factors. Here we investigated the use PLA/CS scaffold as a three dimensional (3D) system that increased neuro-glial cells differentiation. Human EnSCs after three passages were differentiated in neuro-glial like cells under neuroblastoma conditioned medium with FGF2/PDGF-AA on PLA/CS scaffold. By day 18, differentiated cells were analyzed for expression of neuroglial markers by qRT-PCR and immunofluorescence. The results revealed that hEnSCs attach, grow and differentiation on the nanofibrous PLA/CS scaffold. Additionally, our study showed the expression of neural and glial lineage markers such as Nestin, NF-L, MAP2, PDGFRa, CNP, Olig2, MBP, and GFAP in the level of mRNA and MAP2, Tuj-1, and NF-L in the protein level after 18 days. Our results demonstrate that hEnSCs cultured on PLA/CS nanofibrous scaffold have the potential to differentiate in neuronal and glial cells in presence of neuroblastoma conditioned medium on PLA/CS scaffold. The result of this study may have impact in tissue engineering and cells-base therapy of neurodegenerative diseases and have a great potential for wide application.

Keywords: PLA/CS; conditioned medium; endometrial stem cell; growth factor; nanofibrous scaffold; neuroglial cells.