Psoralen induces rat mesenchymal stem cell differentiation towards male germ cells in vitro
WAN Qian
LU Hua
DENG Yanli
LIANG Limei
Abstract：Objective To test the hypothesis that psoralen induces rat mesenchymal stem cells (RMSCs) to differentiate towards male germ cells. Methods RMSCs were induced by psoralen at the final concentration of 3.0 μg/ml, and the morphological changes of the cells were detected microscopically and the cell proliferation changes were measured by MTT assay. The expressions of 7 representative marker genes of male germ cells, namely Oct-4, Stra8, RVLG, SCP3, TNP2, Itgb1, and Itga6, were investigated in the induced cells by real-time quantitative PCR. Results RMSCs showed no obvious morphological changes after induction with 3.0μg/ml psoralen for 72 h. Psoralen induction for 5 days did not significantly affect the proliferation of RMSCs; Psoralen induction for 72 h, however, significantly up-regulated the genes Oct-4, Stra8, SCP3, and Itgb1 (P<0.05) without affecting the expressions of the genes RVLG, TNP2, or Itga6 (P>0.05). Conclusion Psoralen may participate in the differentiation of RMSCs towards male germ cells.
Keywords：psoralenrat mesenchymal stem cellsdifferentiation marker genesmale germ cells
Publication Date：2013-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：4( 1723-1726 )