Effect of nerve growth factor on the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow stromal cells of rats

Objective: To investigate the effect of nerve growth factor(NGF)on the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow stromal cells(BMSC)of rats.Methods: The rat BMSC were cultured in vitro and the marker protein on the surface were identified by flow cytometry.The second generations of BMSC were cultured in osteogenetic medium.The third generation of BMSC were randomly divided into control group(no adding NGF)and experimental group(adding 100ng /ml NGF).The proliferation of the third generation of BMSC were detected by MTT assay, the activities of alkaline phosphatase (ALP)were observed and the osteogenic differatiation of the two groups were compared by von Kossa staining at days 1,3 and 5.Results: The postive CD90 and CD105 and negative CD34 and CD45 expression in cultured BMSC were detected by flow cytometry.Compared with the control group, the mean absorbance values of the experimental group at days 1 and 5 were not statistical different(P ＞ 0.05),but higher at day 3(P＜0.05),the activities of ALP was significantly higher(P＜0.01)and the number and area of the calcium nodules detected by von Kossa staining were larger.Conclusions: NGF can not promote the proliferation of BMSC,but can clearly promote the osteoblast differentiation