| Research Abstract |
The neural crest gives rise to a variety tissues, including peripheral neurons, Schwann cells, melanocytes and ectomesencymal cells, which include the smooth muscle cells of large arteries. Neuroblastoma, one of the common malignant solid tumors in childhood, arises from tissues derived from the neural crest. Therefore neroblastoma cells could be expected to differetiate into either neuronal, schwannian, or smooth muscle cells.
In this study multipotent differentiation of neuroblastoma cells, observed in hematopoetic stem cells, was investigated.
1) Differentiation into neuronal cells : Neuronal differentiation could be most induced by the synthetic retinoid (E5166) among various differentiation inducers. The expression of both alpha and beta retinoic acid receptors was augmented with retinoid-induced neuronal differentiation.
2) Differentiation into smooth muscle cells : Several neuroblastoma cell lines have at least two morphological appearances of neuroblastic (N-type) and substrate-adhesiveness (S-type) cells. Therefore several smooth muscle cell markers, including alpha-smooth muscle actin, desmin, high molecular weight caldesmon, myosin heavy chain isoforms and calponin, were analyzed. In S-type cells, alpha-smooth muscle actin, desmin and calponin protein and/or mRNA were detected.
These results provide the evidence of immature smooth muscle cell phenotype of S-type cells, indicating the possible differentiation pathway of neuroblastoma cells into smooth muscle cells.
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