Neural transdifferentiation of bone marrow stromal cells obtained by chemical agents is a short-time reversible phenomenon

Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC) can acquire morphological and immunohistochemical features of neural cells when they are treated with diverse chemical agents, a finding interpreted as result of cell transdifferentiation. With the purpose of a better knowledge of the possible utility of BMSC for strategies of Nervous System (NS) repair, we have studied the morphological and immunohistochemical changes induced in BMSC by chemical agents, in comparison with those that happen when BMSC are co-cultured with Schwann cells. While chemical BMSC transdifferentiation is a short-time reversible phenomenon, BMSC transdifferentiation obtained by Schwann cell-derived neurotrophic factors remains stable after it has been reached. These findings question the possible clinical utility of BMSC trandifferentiation using chemical agents, and support that neural transdifferentiation of BMSC is a biological phenomenon that can be obtained in vivo because of the presence of environmental factors.