I want to differentiate the cells mainly so that they stop dividing, but also so that they acquire more 'neuronal like' characteristics since I'm working on neurodegenerative diseases.
Besides retinoic acid, you also can try with cholesterol, retinoic acid + cholesterol, or retinoic acid followed by phorbol ester 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate. See the references below. In the first one, the authors compare the effects of each treatment. In my case, I found the best results with RA+Cholesterol.