Study of the differentiation of rat omentum stem cells to nerve cells using brain tissue extract of Wistar rats

Omentum stem cells could be induced to differentiate into neural cells under certain conditions. We studied neural differentiation of OSCs induced by using brain extract. OSCs were isolated from peritoneum and brain extract from neonatal rat brain, then the cells were cocultured in DMEM and brain extract. After 3 passages, OSCs were morphologically observed and processed for RT-PCR and flow cytometry. The number of cells assuming neural morphology increased at 1-2 weeks dramatically. The cells were labeled by neural markers including Map2 and Nestin, and were assessed by flow cytometry and RT-PCR. Our finding demonstrated that OSCs can efficiently differentiate into neural cells when cultured in brain extract, which is rich of brain tissue growth factors, such as NGF, NT4, NT3, BDNF.