Molecular Mechanisms of Transdifferentiation of Adipose-Derived Stem Cells into Neural Cells: Current Status and Perspectives

Table 2

List of protocols inducing the transdifferentiation of ADSCs into neural cells.

Class	Factors	Species of ADSCs	Targeted cell type	References
Transcription factors	OSKM	Human	NPCs, NCs	[40]
	Sox2	Mouse	NSC-like cells	[38]
	Nurr-1	Rat	NCs	[41]
Growth factors and cytokines	bFGF and EGF	Human/mouse/rat	NSCs, NCs	Almost all references
	PDGF	Human/mouse/rat	NSCs, NCs	[9, 35, 42]
	BDNF	Human/mouse/rat	NSCs, NCs	[11, 43–48]
	LIF	Human	Schwann-like cells	[46]
	Heregulin-beta	Human	Schwann-like cells	[42]
	GGF-2	Rat	NCs	[9]
	GDNF	Rat	NCs	[11, 45]
	CNTF	Rat	NSCs, neurons	[11]
	NT-3	Rat	NSCs, neurons	[11, 44, 48]
Small molecules (epigenetic)	VPA	Mouse/human	NCs	[8, 49]
	SB431542/dorsomorphin	Human	Neurons	[50]
Signaling factors	Retinoic acid	Human/mouse/rat	NSCs, NCs	[11, 35, 40, 45, 47, 51–53]
	Forskolin	Human/mouse/rat	NSCs, NCs	[8, 9, 45, 46, 54]
	cAMP	Human	NCs	[49]
	IBMX	Human/mouse/rat	NSCs, NCs	[43, 49, 55, 56]
Hormones	Hydrocortisone	Mouse	NCs	[8]
	Dexamethasone	Rat	Schwann-like cells	[55]
	Insulin	Human/mouse/rat	NSCs, NCs	[8, 43, 45, 55, 56]
	Indomethacin	Human/mouse/rat	NSCs, NCs	[43, 55, 56]
Other factors	Conditioned medium	Human	NCs	[57]
	Rat sciatic nerve leachate	Rat	Schwann-like cells	[55]
	Alginate hydrogel	Human	Neurons	[58]
	Electrical stimulation	Rat	NCs	[59]
Controversial chemical	BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole)	Human/mouse/rat	NSCs, NCs	[8, 45, 51, 60]
	BME (2-mercaptoethanol)	Human	NCs	[51]
	BHA/BME/DMSO/	Human/mouse/rat	NCs	[7, 61–63]

The protocol to induce neural transdifferentiation of ADSCs using some chemical (such as DMSO, BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole), and BME (2-mercaptoethanol)) has been questioned by many researchers [64], so we list these items separately.