Differentiation of Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells into Neuron-Like Cells Affected by Extract of Ginger Officinale

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is an herbal medicine that has been used for treatment of many disorders. Ginger have been identified for antioxidant activity and neuroprotective effects. Ginger can alleviate cell death and regenerate the motor function in rats with spinal cord injury. In the present study, we investigated the effect of ginger on neural induction of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells and their differentiation into neural cells.
Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) were isolated from the femurs and tibias of rat and these cells were induced with the appropriate dose of ginger extract. These cells were assessed by crysel violet staining and immunocytochemistery.
The results showed that cells isolated from bone marrow were immunoreactive to CD106 (95.67 ± 2.26), CD90 (71.52 ± 6.64) but not to hematopoietic cell markers (CD45). Induced BMSCs by 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 microg/ml of ginger after 12 and 24 hours were positive for nissl body. The highest percentage of live cells was observed with 30 microg/ml of ginger and maximum neural-like cells was induced with 60 microg/ml ginger after 12 hours.
Ginger can be considered as a potential alternative non-toxic substance for induction of neuronal cells and can be used for induction of BMSCs to neuron-like cells.