E Hasanzadeh - Department of Tissue Engineering and Applied Cell Sciences, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran,Department of Tissue Engineering and Applied Cell Sciences, School of Advanced Technologies in M
J Ai - Department of Tissue Engineering and Applied Cell Sciences, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
S Ebrahimi-Barough - Department of Tissue Engineering and Applied Cell Sciences, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
N Mahmoodi - Sina Trauma and Surgery Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
H Nekounam - Department of Medical Nanotechnology, School of Advanced Technology in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
SH Asadpour - Department of Tissue Engineering and Applied Cell Sciences, School of Advanced Technologies, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran

Objective: For treatment of neurological injuries, targeted stem cells differentiation into neural phenotypes could be a po-tential therapeutic approach. Endometrial stem cells (EnSCs) represent a promising cell source for neural tissue engineering with their ability to differentiate into various neural cell types. Estrogen is a hormone that has robust effects on central nerv-ous system (CNS) signal transduction pathways. This hormone provides the induction of growth factors, which are important for neuronal differentiation, and prominent neuro-protection in CNS. The aim of this study is the investigation of estrogen effect on neurofilament (NF-H) gene expression in neural-like cells differentiated from EnSCs.Materials and Methods: Human EnSCs were isolated and characterized in passage ۳ using flow cytometry, adipogenic, and osteogenic differentiation. In order to neural differentia-tion, cells were exposed to estrogen, epidermal growth factor, fibroblast growth factor-۲, retinoic acid, B۲۷ and ITS supple-ments for ۱۴ days. After neural differentiation, the expression level of NF-H, as a neural-specific marker, was quantified using immunofluorescence and quantitative Real-Time PCR (qRT-PCR).Results: After ۱۴ days of neural induction, qRT-PCR results showed up-regulation of this neural-specific marker in the mRNA level. Also, immunofluorescence images showed the high expression of NF-H at the level of protein, compared to undifferentiated human EnSCs as the control group.Conclusion: Estrogen is an important female sex hormone that can affect neuronal differentiation. According to our findings,hEnSCs can be a potential and approachable cell source for enhancing neural regeneration and tissue engineering. Further-more, our data confirmed the influence of estrogen on the ex-pression of NF-H, as a neural marker, in hEnSCs.

Human Endometrial Stem Cells, Neural-Like Cells , Differentiation, Neurofilament (NF-H) ,Estrogen