The effect of Fibroblast Growth Factor-2(FGF-2) and retinoic acid on differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells into neural cells

Introduction: Embryonic Stem (ES) cells as pluripotent cells derived from the inner cell mass of blastula can differentiate to neural cells in vitro and this property is valuable in studies of neurogenesis and in the generation of donor cells for transplantation. In this regard, the propose of this research, was the study of the role of two important factors in the development of neural system, Fibroblast Growth Factor and Retinoic Acid were used in the study of mouse ESCs differentiation into neural cells. Methods: Royan B1 ESCs were used in this experiment. The formation of embryoid bodies (EBs) within 2days was the key indication of the differentiation process and then the treatment was carried out under the influence of different factors for example retinoic acid and fibroblast growth factor-2 within 4days in cell culture media in 6 groups and finally the EBs were transferred on poly-L-lysine coated dishes within 5 days to promotes the differentiation. Results: The Studying of β-tubulin III, as a marker of neural cells, in neural cells derived from the ESCs used immunocytochemistry method, and the results obtained from statistical analysis of the percentage of neural differentiated colonies, revealed that, retinoic acid is a strong inducer factor which caused the differentiation of ESCs into neural cells and under the influence of combination of fibroblast growth factor and retinoic acid, ESCs differentiated to the neural cells with longer and thicker outgrowth. Conclusion: This experiment showed that under the influence of fibroblast growth factor-2 and retinoic acid there is a possibility to generate an efficient and large numbers of neurons with longer and thicker outgrowth like motor neurons of spinal cord of posterior area which an suitable for transplantation in damaged spinal cord.