p75NTR suppression in rat bone marrow stromal stem cells significantly reduced their rate of apoptosis during neural differentiation.

Most of the transplanted cells within central nervous system (CNS) undergo extensive cell death. Preventing the death of stem cell-derived neuron-like cells within adult CNS would enhance the efficiency of transplantation in clinics. We have employed an interfering RNA (RNAi) approach to elevate the survival rate of neurally differentiated bone marrow stromal stem cells (BMSCs), by means of suppressing p75NTR expression. Our data revealed that stably overexpressing a specific shRNA against p75NTR transcript could effectively reduce the expression of endogenous p75NTR in neurally differentiated BMSCs. As p75NTR can induce neuronal death in target cells, its suppression is followed by a significant reduction of apoptosis in neural-like cells derived from BMSCs. Thus, our data provides a method to increase the survival of stem cells being employed in transplantation within CNS and hence increase the success rate of cell-based therapies in damaged area of brain and spinal cord.