Neurotrophic factors which direct the transdifferentiation.

<p>(A) ELISA assay showed the quantity of seven neurotrophic factors in the SC conditioned medium. There were high levels of BDNF, PDGF, NT-3 and IGF-2. The levels of NGF were relatively low, while GDNF and FGF were undetectable. (B) Phase-contrast micrographs showed that MDSCs adopted a SC-like shape upon treatment with PDGF (1000 pg/ml), NT-3 (500 pg/ml) and IGF-2 (200 pg/ml) in combination. (C) Immunocytochemisty showed that the tMDSCs highly expressed the SC marker S100 protein. (D) Flow cytometry assay demonstrated that the portion of S100, GFAP, and p75 positive cells in tMDSCs were 58.64±4.38%, 47.38±0.84% and 44.33±2.39%, while 27.89±5.98% of the tMDSCs expressed all of the three SC markers (data are mean % cells±S.E.M.). (E) Immunoblot assay showed the MDSCs expressed of S100, GFAP and p75 only after transdifferentiation. β-actin served as loading control. Right, bar graph of qualitative data in statistics. S100, GFAP and p75 protein levels were normalized to that of β-actin, shown as mean±S.E.M. **, p<0.01 vs. MDSC.