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Vol 46(2012) N 5 p. 664-669; Y. Noh1, H. Cho2, O.H. Kim1, J.H. Park1, S.Y. Lee1, H. Yang2, D. Sohn3, W. Kim4, D. Kim1, Y.H. Chung1, K.Y. Kim1, S.S. Kim1*, W.B. Lee1** N-Acetylcysteine Enhances Neuronal Differentiation of P19 Embryonic Stem Cells via Akt and N-Cadherin Activation 1Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Korea2Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Korea 3Department of Thoracic Surgery, College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Korea 4Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Korea *sungsu@cau.ac.kr **whitefox@cau.ac.kr Received - 2011-10-14; Accepted - 2011-11-01 We examined whether N-acetylcysteine (NAC) enhanced embryonic body (EB) formation and neuronal differentiation in terms of EB formation, neuronal marker (microtubule-associated protein 2; MAP-2) expression, and neuron maturation using P19 embryonic stem cells. The size and numbers of EBs were greatly increased, together with the up-regulated N-cadherin expression. Also, MAP-2 expression and neurite outgrowth were much increased with activation of serine/threonine protein kinase (Akt) and blocked by addition of an Akt inhibitor (LY294002). Our results suggested that NAC increased EB formation by up-regulating the N-cadherin expression. Furthermore, NAC-enhanced neuronal differentiation was mediated by activation of Akt. Akt, N-cadherin, N-acetylcysteine, P19 embryonic stem cell, differentiation |