Abstract: Objective To investigate the effect of integrin-linked kinase (ILK) on inducing mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to neuron stem-like cell in vitro. Methods MSCs isolated from umbilical cord were transfected with plasmid DNA encoding green fluorescent protein (GFP) and GFP-fusion ILK, wild and mutant, respectively; and cultured in serum-free media with basic fibroblast growth factor, epidermal growth factor and B27. It was assessed with the proliferative activity and the efficiency of differentiation into neural stem-like cell. Results MSCs transfected with GFP-fusion wild ILK expressed ILK and kinase-dead mutant ILK stably. The activity of proliferation increased and more of them differentiated into neural stem-like cell, which express CD133 and Nestin validated by PCR and Western blotting, and more of wild than of mutant. Conclusion Integrin-linked kinase may play a positive role in MSC differentiation into neural stem-like cell, which may associate with the activity of kinase.

Key words: integrin-linked kinase, mesenchymal stem cells, proliferation, neural stem cell-like cell