ISOLATION OF NEURAL STEM CELLS FROM NEONATAL RAT HIPPOCAMPUS AND THEIR IN VITRO DIFFERENTIATION INTO CHOLINERGIC NEURONS / 神经解剖学杂志

ABSTRACT

The present study aims to isolate neural stem cells from neonatal rat hippocampus and induce them to differentiate into cholinergic neurons. A multipotent cell line derived from the hippocampi of neonatal rats which had the ability to form clones was incubated in serum-free DMEM/F12 medium added with 20ng/ml basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and B27. After differentiation of the neural stem cells, immunocytochemistry was used to detect nestin, the antigen of the cell clone, and β-tubulin (Tuj 1 ), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and galactocerebroside (Galc), the markers specific for neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, respectively. Embryonic chick skeletal muscle extract was used to induce the differentiation of the neural stem cells into cholinergic neurons. The results showed that the cell line isolated from the hippocampi of neonatal rats expressed nestin and had the potential to form clones and differentiate into neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. Embryonic chick skeletal muscle extract can induce 9.6% of the isolated cell line to differentiate into cholinergic neurons compared with 3.9% in controls. These findings suggested that the cell line, which expressed nestin antigen, was a multipotent cell line capable of self-renewing, and was believed to contain stem cells of the CNS. These neural stem cells can be induced to differentiate into cholinergic neurons by using embryonic chick skeletal muscle extract.