Apoptosis during β-mercaptoethanol-induced differentiation of adult adipose-derived stromal cells into neurons

β-mercaptoethanol can induce adipose-derived stromal cells to rapidly and efficiently differentiate into neurons in vitro.However,because of the short survival time of the differentiated cells,clinical applications for this technique are limited.As such,we examined apoptosis of neurons differentiated from adipose-derived stromal cells induced with β-mercaptoethanol in vitro using terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling and transmission electron microscopy.The results revealed that the number of surviving cells decreased and apoptosis rate increased as induction time extended.Taken together,these results suggest that apoptosis occurring in the process of adipose-derived stromal cells differentiating into neurons is the main cause of cell death.However,the mechanism underlying cellular apoptosis should be researched further to develop methods of controlling apoptosis for clinical applications.