Enhanced green fluorescent protein-expressing human mesenchymal stem cells retain neural marker expression

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have the potential to play a role in autologous treatment of central nervous system injury or disease. Here we transduced human MSCs with enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP). We compared the capacity of control and EGFP-positive cells to proliferate under normal culture conditions, as well as express neural markers following trans-differentiation. EGFP-positive cells proliferated comparably to controls, retained EGFP expression over the course of multiple passages, and retained neural marker expression at levels comparable to control MSCs. Further neurogenic capacity of EGFP-positive human MSCs was examined by growth as neural stem cell-like neurospheres. No significant difference was observed in the ability of control or EGFP-positive cells to generate primary neurospheres or to expand during passage. When examined by immunostaining for the presence of neuroectodermal markers, neurosphere-derived cells similarly expressed neural markers. We show that human MSCs expressing EGFP represent an attractive and practical source of stem cells for the study of repair and regeneration in neurological models.