Alginate scaffold has been considered as an appropriate biomaterial for promoting the differ-entiation of embryonic stem cells toward neuronal cell lineage. We hypothesized that alginate scaffold is suitable for culturing Wharton’s jelly mesenchymal stem cells (WJMSCs) and can pro-mote the differentiation of WJMSCs into neuron-like cells. In this study, we cultured WJMSCs in a three-dimensional scaffold fabricated by 0.25% alginate and 50 mM CaCl2 in the presence of neurogenic medium containing 10 μM retinoic acid and 20 ng/mL basic ifbroblast growth factor. These cells were also cultured in conventional two-dimensional culture condition in the presence of neurogenic medium as controls. After 10 days, immunolfuorescence staining was performed for detectingβ-tubulin (marker for WJMSCs-differentiated neuron) and CD271 (motor neuron marker).β-Tubulin and CD271 expression levels were significantly greater in the WJMSCs cultured in the three-dimensional alginate scaffold than in the conventional two-dimensional culture condition. These findings suggest that three-dimensional alginate scaffold cell culture system can induce neuronal differentiation of WJMSCs effectively.