Chordin-like protein 1 promotes neuronal differentiation by inhibiting bone morphogenetic protein-4 in neural stem cells.

In the present study, the effects of chordin‑like protein 1 (CHRDL1) overexpression, together with bone morphogenetic protein‑4 (BMP‑4) treatment, on the differentiation of rat spinal cord‑derived neural stem cells (NSCs) was investigated. Adult rat spinal cord‑derived NSCs were cultured in serum‑free medium. The recombined eukaryotic expression vector pSecTag2/Hygro B‑CHRDL1 was transfected into adult rat spinal cord‑derived NSCs using a lipid‑based transfection reagent and protein expression was assessed by western blot analysis. Differentiation of transfected NSCs following BMP‑4 treatment was determined by immunocytochemistry. The percentage of microtubule‑associated protein‑2 (MAP‑2)‑positive cells in the BMP‑4‑treated (B) group was found to be significantly lower compared with that in the non‑transfected control (N) group. The percentage of MAP‑2‑positive cells in the pSecTag2/Hygro B‑CHRDL1‑transfected, BMP‑4‑treated group was identified to be significantly higher compared with that in group B, however, no significant difference was observed between group N and the transfected, non‑BMP‑4‑treated control group. The current study indicates that CHRDL1 protein antagonizes BMP‑4 activity and induces spinal cord‑derived NSCs to differentiate into neurons.