Nowadays, regenerative medicine is going to find its true position among different kinds of treatment measures. In this regard, cell therapy brings hopes for the treatment of various diseases. As it is obvious, the role of nervous system for the appropriate function of other organs is not negligible. Unfortunately, damage to nerve cells is irreversible. Substitution of malfunctioned neural cells with the normal one is a noteworthy choice. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of fetal rat brain extract on morphology of bone marrowderived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs). Hence, pooled BM-MSCs were obtained from femurs and tibias of rats and cultured until reaching passage 3. BM-MSCs were characterized by the presence of mesenchymal specific stem cell markers and the absence of hematopoietic specific stem cell markers. Also, to confirm the BM-MSC potency, osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation capability was done. Fetal brain extract were prepared from rat in the late second week of gestational period. BM-MSCs were treated with basal culture medium containing 20 % brain extract. Control group was only treated with basal medium. After 3 days, neural-like cells were noticed with round body and significant projections. In some cases, the cells were bipolar and in the remained were multipolar. Cells with such structures were not seen in the control group. As the brain extract is readily available, inexpensive, do not cause any toxicity, and induce neural-like cells, it can be a candidate for neural lineage differentiation purposes.

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