REGULAR ARTICLEThe differentiation effect of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)on human amniotic epithelial stem cells to express ectodermallineage markersFelor Biniazan1,2&Asma Manzari-Tavakoli3&Fahimeh Safaeinejad1&Ali Moghimi3&Farzad Rajaei2&Hassan Niknejad1Received: 10 July 2019 /Accepted: 12 August 2020#Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020AbstractStem cells are a promising tool for treatment of a variety of degenerative diseases. Human amniotic epithelial stem cells (hAECs)have desirable and unique characteristics that make them a proper candidate for cell therapy. In this study, we have investigatedthe effects of BMP-4 (bone morphogenetic protein-4) and its inhibition on differentiation of AECs into ectodermal lineages.Analysis of AEC-derived ectodermal lineages (neurons and keratinocytes) was performed by using flow cytometry technique forMap2 andβ-tubulin (as neuron markers), Olig2 and MBP (as oligodendrocyte markers), and K14 and K10 (as keratinocytemarkers). The results of this study illustrated that noggin (as BMP antagonist), BMP4, and both BMP4 and heparin (together orseparately) increased neural and keratinocyte marker expression, respectively. The expression of markers MAP2, olig2, and K14in hAECs has been significantly decreased 21 days after exposure to differentiation medium (without growth factors) comparedwith isolation day, which supports the hypothesis that AECs can be dedifferentiated into pluripotent cells. Moreover, activationand inhibition of BMP signaling have no effects on viability of hAECs. The results of this study showed that BMP signaling andits inhibition are the key factors for ectodermal lineage differentiation of amnion-derived stem cells.

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