Conversion of Adipose Tissue-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells to Neural Stem Cell-Like Cells by a Single Transcription Factor, Sox2.

Adipose tissue is an attractive source of easily accessible adult candidate cells for regenerative medicine. Adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSCs) have multipotency and strong proliferation and differentiation capabilities in vitro. However, as mesodermal multipotent stem cells, whether the ADSCs can convert into induced neural stem cells (NSCs) has so far not been demonstrated. In this study, we found that normally the naïve ADSCs cultured as either monolayer or spheres in NSC medium did not express Sox2 and Pax6 genes and proteins, and could not differentiate to neuron-like cells. However, when we introduced the Sox2 gene into ADSCs by retrovirus, they exhibited a typical NSC-like morphology, and could be passaged continuously, and expressed NSC specific markers Sox2 and Pax6. In addition, the ADSC-derived NSC-like cells displayed the ability to differentiate into neuron-like cells when switched to the differentiation culture medium, expressing neuronal markers, including Tuj1 and MAP2 genes and proteins. Our results suggest the ADSCs can be converted into induced NSC-like cells with a single transcription factor Sox2. This finding could provide another alternative cell source for cell therapy of neurological disorders.