Abstract: Abstract Objective：To study the influence of growth and differentiaion of human Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells when co-cultule with Activated Schwann Cells in vitro. Methods：Isolated and cultured human Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells and rats’ activated Schwann cells, co-culture these two types of cells by milicell inserts, Immunofluorescence staining of nestin and NF-200 were using to analysis the differentiation of hUCMSCs. Results：In milicell inserts layered co-culture conditions, hUCMSCs showed neuronal morphology gradually which was not happened in the control group; hUCMSCs expressed neural stem cell marker Nestin and neural marker NF200,while in the control group expression of Nestin was in a low level and NF200 was negative. Conclusion：hUCMSCs was able to transdifferentiate into neural cell, and neural differentiation can be induced by coculture with Activated Schwann Cells .

Key words: Umbilical cord, mesenchymal stem cells, schwann cells, co-culture, neural differentiation