Fig. 1

Chemical induction of human lung fetal IMR-90 fibroblasts into neuron-like cells. a A schematic diagram describing the chemical induction procedure. V, VPA; R, Repsox; K, kenpaullone; F, forskolin; Y, Y-27632; P, purmorphamine; L, L-ascorbic acid. b Representative microscopy images depicting the morphological changes after chemical induction. Scale bars=100 μm. c Characterization of the cultured IMR-90 fibroblasts by immunostaining assay for the fibroblast marker VIMENTIN, neural markers Class III β-tubulin 1 (TUJ1) and microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2), neural progenitor/stem cell markers PAX6, SOX2, and NESTIN, glial cell marker GFAP, and neural crest cell marker p75. Scale bars=25 μm. d Expression of TUJ1 after 7 days of chemical inductions. Scale bar = 25 μm. e Dynamic changes of VIMENTIN and TUJ1 in fibroblasts at early 12 h and 24 h of chemical induction. Scale bars=25 μm. f Dynamic changes of VIMENTIN and TUJ1 at early 24 h and 72 h in the control medium with small molecules and protein factors. Scale bars=25 μm