In-vitro effects of brain-derived neurotrophic factor on neural progenitor/stem cells from rat hippocampus.

Mounting evidences from in-vivo studies showed that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays an important role in the neurogenesis, but the effects of BDNF are controversial because of neurogenesis affected by many factors in vivo. In this study, we investigated the effects of BDNF on the survival, proliferation, and differentiation of the neural progenitor/stem cells (NPCs) in vitro. The results showed that 40 ng/ml of BDNF significantly increased the number and diameter of neurospheres formed by NPCs; meanwhile, the TUNEL rates and lactate dehydrogenase release of NPCs were also inhibited. Tuj-1+ immunostaining showed that BDNF obviously induced the NPCs to differentiate into neurons and elongated the neurite. Our results implied that BDNF promotes the proliferation of NPCs and induces them to differentiate into neurons, and enhancement of the survival of NPCs probably is one of the mechanisms.