Bone Morphogenetic Protein-7 (BMP-7) Promotes Neuronal Differentiation of Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells (BMSCs) In Vitro

This study is aimed at investigating the effects of bone morphogenetic protein-7 (BMP-7) on the differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) into neuron-like cells in vitro. The rat BMSCs were isolated and identified, which were divided into the control, empty, recombinant rhBMP-7 transfection, and Lv-BMP-7 transfection groups. BMSCs were induced under different conditions. CCK-8 assay was performed to detect cell proliferation. ALP was used to detect cell activity. Cellular morphology after induction was observed. Immunofluorescence was conducted to detect the expression and location of nerve cell markers. Quantitative real-time PCR and Western blot analysis were performed to detect the mRNA and protein expression levels, respectively. The rhBMP-7 and Lv-BMP-7 promoted the proliferation of BMSCs, accompanied with increased ALP activities. Morphological observations revealed that rhBMP-7 and Lv-BMP-7 induced BMSCs to differentiate into neuron-like cells. Immunofluorescence revealed that the rhBMP-7 and Lv-BMP-7 groups showed positive expression of MAP-2 and Nfh in BMSCs. MAP-2 was mainly distributed in the cell body and cellular protrusion, while Nfh was mainly distributed in the cytoplasm and cell protrusion. Positive mRNA and protein expressions of MAP-2 and Nfh were observed in the cells of the rhBMP-7 and Lv-BMP-7 groups, and the expression levels were significantly higher than the control and empty groups. Both exogenous BMP-7 (rhBMP-7) and endogenous BMP-7 (Lv-BMP-7) can induce BMSCs to differentiate into neuron-like cells highly expressing the neuronal markers MAP-2 and Nfh.