Lycium barbarum has been considered as a valuable old herbal medicine that has been widely used in Asian country. Lycium barbarum polysaccharides (LBPs), a major component, are proved to possess a variety of beneficial effects including neuro-protection, anticancer properties and anti-aging as well as immune modulation. However, the biological functions and inductive mechanisms of LBP towards the mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) differentiation process have not been fully investigated. In this study, we found that the expression of specific marker of neuron cells including β-tubulin III, NF200 and synapsin was up-regulated when cultured with LBP after 7 days during differentiation of bone marrow-derived MSCs to neuron-like cells, while the pluripotency marker such as Oct4 and Klf4 were down-regulated. By using the staining of phalloidine, the cytoskeleton of the stem cells induced by LBP exhibited lengthening character, resulting in the induction effect of LBP towards BMSCs. Overall, we demonstrate that the directional differentiation process of BMSCs can be partially regulated by LBP. We conclude that this strategy may provide opportunities for physician to improve the effectiveness of stem cell therapy for the treatment of degenerative cerebrovascular disease

Mesenchymal stem cell, Neural regeneration, Lycium barbarum polysaccharide, Tissue engineering