Differentiation of Neural Stem Cells Influences Their Chemotaxis toward HGF

Abstract: Precise migration of NSCs is critically important for neurogenesis and repair in the nervous system. Although much effort has been devoted to the delineation of factors involved in the migration of NSCs， the relationship between the chemotactic response and the differentiation status of these cells， however， is not yet known. Previous studies have demonstrated that NSCs display a strong tropism for HGF， so we choose HGF as the chemoattractant. In the present study， using a neural stem cell line C17.2 cells， obtained NSCs at varying differentiation stages at first (cells of 0， 12， 24， 72 h differentiation)， then used Boyden chamber and Dunn chamber to analyze the chemotactic migration of NSCs under different differentiation states in response to HGF. Boyden chamber results showed that the number of cells of 12， 24 h of differentiation migrated to HGF was significantly more than undifferentiated and 72 h of differentiation cells. The Dunn chamber results indicated that the forward migration index (FMI) was higher in both cells of 12， 24 h differentiation. These results illustrate that the response of NSCs to HGF varies widely depending on the differentiation states， thereby shedding light on optimization of the therapeutic potential of NSCs to be employed for neural regeneration after injury.

CSTR: 32200.14.cjcb.2012.07.0005