Lithium Chloride can Induce Differentiation of Human Immortalized RenVm Cells into Dopaminergic Neurons

Background: Stem cell-based therapy is a novel strategy for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. The transplantation of fully differentiated cells instead of stem cells in order to decrease serious adverse complications of stem cell therapy is a new idea. In this study, the effect of lithium chloride on dopaminergic differentiation of human immortalized RenVm cells was investigated in order to access a population of fully differentiated cells for transplantation in Parkinson disease. Methods: The immortalized RenVm cells were induced to dopaminergic differentiation using a neurobasal medium supplemented with N2 and different concentrations (1, 3, 6 mM) of Lithium Chloride (LiCl) for 4, 8 and 12 days. The efficiency of dopaminergic differentiation was evaluated using immunocytochemistry and western blot techniques for tyrosine hydroxylase and β-catenin marker expression. Results: Our results indicated that LiCl can promote dopaminergic differentiation of RenVm cells in a dose-dependent manner. Conclusion: It can be concluded that LiCl is able to facilitate dopaminergic differentiation of cultured cells by affecting Wnt-frizzled signaling pathway.