Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common age-associated neurodegenerative disorder. To date, stem cell transplantation therapy has been developed to replace lost or damaged neural cells in PD patients, in whom dopaminergic neuron cells are lost. Here, we show that CD44+ human amniotic fluid cells (HuAFCs) can be induced to become functional dopaminergic neuronal-like cells in vitro. Furthermore, when CD44+ or CD44- HuAFCs were transplanted into 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-treated PD rats, the results indicated that CD44+ HuAFCs expressed multiple dopaminergic neuron cell markers and were ameliorative to behavioral recovery in PD rats after induction both in vitro and in vivo. CD44- HuAFCs did not fully differentiate into dopaminergic neuronal-like cells. When compared with CD44- HuAFCs, CD44+ HuAFCs showed increased activity in regeneration of dopaminergic neuron cell-like cells, increased migration distances, and improvement of animal behavior in the PD rat model. Therefore, CD44+ HuAFCs could be a source of dopaminergic neuronal-like cells with a potential use in cell-replacement therapy for PD.

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