Autophagy and apoptosis during adult adipose- derived stromal cells differentiation into neuron-like cells in vitro

β-mercaptoethanol can induce adult adipose-derived stromal cells to rapidly and efficiently differentiate into typical neuron-like cells in vitro.Immunohistochemistry showed that neuron specific enolase and neurofilament-200 expression gradually increased with the extension of induction time,and peaked at 5 hours.By contrast,glial fibrillary acidic protein was negatively expressed at all time points.Induced cells possessed a typical Nissl body,apoptosis showing condensed chromatin in the nucleus,autophagosomes with a bilayered membrane and autolysosomes in the cytoplasm at 5 hours.TUNEL assay and immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence demonstrated that apoptosis and caspase-3 expression increased and peaked at 8 hours.Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence showed that microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 gradually increased with induction and reached a peak at 5 hours.These results indicate that autophagy played an important role in protecting cells during adult adipose-derived stromal cells differentiation into neuron-like cells in vitro.