BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that insulin-like growth factor 1 has a neuroprotective effect and can promote the differentiation of neural stem cells into neurons and oligodendrocytes.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of insulin-like growth factor 1 on axon growth in the neural stem cell-derived neurons.
METHODS: Hippocampal neural stem cells of newborn wistar rats were cultured and passaged. Passage 3-5 neural stem cells were incubated in a 24-well plate. 10 μL insulin-like growth factors (500 mg/L) were added into 12 wells (experimental group). The remaining wells served as control group.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: At 1, 2, 3, 4 days of culture, dead cells in the experimental group were significantly fewer than those in the control group (P < 0.05). The length of neuronal axon was significantly longer in the experimental group than in the control group (P < 0.05), but there was no significant difference in bifurcation numbers between these two groups (P > 0.05). These findings suggest that insulin-like growth factor 1 can increase the differentiation of neural stem cells into neurons and promote the extension of neural stem cells-derived neuronal axon, but it cannot increase the number of axon bifurcations.