Neural differentiation of rat muscle-derived stem cells in the presence of valproic acid: A preliminary study

In this study, we chose valproic acid (VA) for inducing neural differentiation in rat muscle-derived stem cells (rMDSCs). After pre-induction with basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and subsequent treatment with VA, VA-related cytotoxicity to rMDSCs was relatively low. In addition, VA-treated rMDSCs exhibited a neural-like morphology after 1, 4, and 7 days. The immunocytochemical results of VA-treated rMDSCs showed abundant cells stained positive for neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and neuron filament (NF) as neural markers, oligodendrocyte transcription factor 2 (Olig-2) as an oligodendrocyte marker, and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) as an astrocyte marker. Our results suggest that rMDSCs can be differentiated into a neural-like phenotype by using VA.