Morphometric characteristics of TGF-β1-positive cells of fetal rat brain in vitro

Abstract

One of the directions of cell therapy being developed for brain gliomas is the use of the neurogenic stem and progenitor cells (NSCs/NPCs). There are data on the anti-tumor and immunomodulating properties of the NSCs/NPCs the mechanisms of which were not disclosed yet. One of the potential targets for tumor therapy is the transforming growth factor β (TGF-β1) which is thought to be one of the key molecules in the regulation of proliferation, differentiation and cell survival or apoptosis. In the view of available information about the possibility of TGF-β1 production by the mammalian multipotent NSCs/NPCs, the aim of this work was to study the TGF-β1-positive cells in the dynamics of cultivation of fetal brain neurogenic cells as a potential source of anti-tumor or immunomodulating effects of these cells.Material and methods. The fetal rat brain cells on 14th (E14) day of gestation were used as the source for cultivation in standard conditions (DМЕМ + 1 % fetal bovine serum) and studied on the 2nd and 37thday by morphometry and immunocytochemistry.Results. In the fetal rat brain cell cultures, the TGF-β1-positive cells made 22.04 ± 2.33 % and the nestin-positive cells made 49.16 ± 10.60 % of the total cells number. The morphometric parameters of TGF-β1-positive cells exceeded the corresponding values of negative cells (average values of cross-sectional areas of the cytoplasm, cross-sectional areas of the nucleus, nuclear-cytoplasmic ratio). During cultivation the relative amount of TGF-β1-positive cells was slightly decreased 15.27 ± 9.80 % (p = 0.7) and their sizes were increased. On the 37th day of cultivation the sizes of TGF-β1-positive and their nuclei were smaller in the comparison with the TGF-β1-negative cells.Conclusions. The presence of TGF-β1 expression by part of neurogenic cells of fetal rat brain (E14) in vitro was found, which persisted throughout cultivation (~5 weeks). Significant quantitative differences of morphometric parameters of TGF-β1-positive and negative cells were detected.