The aim of this study was to establish the culture system of isolation and cultivation of the neural stem cells (NSCs) from the embryonic @entity35 brain and spinal cord. The methods of microscopic dissection, cell culture and immunofluorescence cytochemistry were used. The results are as follows. (1) In the presence of @entity664 ( @entity664 ) and @entity8160 ( @entity8160 ), both brain- and spinal cord-derived stem cells proliferated and expanded in vitro for 8 - 10 passages (over 60 d). The period of expansion resulted in a 10(6)-fold increase in brain-derived NSCs and 10(5)-fold increase in spinal cord-derived NSCs. These proliferating cells expressed nestin. (2) In the medium containing 1% FBS, the two NSCs populations could be induced to differentiate into neurons, astrocytes and oligodentrocytes. The percentage of neurons (beta-tubulin III-ir) differentiated from brain-derived NSCs decreased rapidly from 11.95+/-2.5% at passage 2 (P(2)) to 1.97+/-1.16% at passage 5 (P5). Significant difference was shown between P(2) and P(5) (P<0.01). The percentage of oligodentrocytes ( @entity42400 -ir) differentiated from brain-derived NSCs remained mostly unchanged from 8.66+/-2.93% at P(2) to 9.12+/-1.13% at P(5). The same differentiation patterns were found in spinal cord-derived NSCs. All these results indicate that both embryonic @entity35 brain- and spinal cord-derived NSCs can expand and proliferate in vitro through multiple passages, and retain the capacity to differentiate into all three major types of cells in the central nervous system.

[Isolation and cultivation of neural stem cells from the embryonic XXXX brain and spinal cord].

@entity35 :: ('10116', 'Species') :: ['rat'] @entity8160 :: ('25313(Tax:10116)', 'Gene') :: ['EGF', 'epidermal growth factor'] @entity664 :: ('54250(Tax:10116)', 'Gene') :: ['fibroblast growth factor-2', 'FGF-2'] @entity42400 :: ('306886(Tax:10116)', 'Gene') :: ['Rip']
@entity35 :: (10116,Species) :: ['rat']
