Neural Differentiation Of Human Umbilical Cord Blood AC133+ Cells In Vitro And Improvement Of Cognitive Function And Survival Of Transgenic Mice Of Alzheimer's Disease After Intraventricular Transplantation

The neural differentiation potential of the AC133~+ cord blood (CB) cells were studied using four different culture conditions. The first was DMED/F12 medium with epidermal growth factor (EGF) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). No marker specific for astrocyte or neuron was detected in this condition. The second was DMEM/F12 medium supplemented with EGF, bFGF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and retinoic acid (RA). The third was a non cell-cell contact co-culture system in which CB isolated AC133~+cells were separately co-cultured with human fetal brain-derived trophic support cells. Nestin, BMP-2 (Bone Morphogenetic Protein-2) and NCAM (neural cell adhesion molecule) mRNA expressed in CB cells at day 14 and only NCAM expressed at day 28 in these two culture conditions. Additionally, 5.4% to 7.7% glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) positive astrocytes were found in CB cells four weeks later. The fourth was a co-culture system with direct cell-cell contact of AC133~+CB cells with brain-derived trophic support cells. In this condition, 7.8±2.1% CB cells expressed GFAP and 2.3±0.7% CB cells expressed neuronal marker β-tubulin III. Our results showed that CB-isolated AC133~+ cells expressed both astrocytes' marker (GFAP) and neuronal cells' marker (β-tubulin III) in our experiments in vitro. The supplement with instructive signals, such as BDNF and...