Culture of neural stem cells from striatum and mescncephalic of embryonic rats in vitro

Objective To investigate the proliferation and differentiation of striatum and mescncephalic cells from embryonic rats in vitro. Methods Neural stem cells of striatum and mescncephalic from embryonic rats were cultured using serum-free medium. The capacity of proliferation was identified by the formation of neurosphere and by BrdU and nestin staining. The phenotype of differentiated neural cells was identified by immunocytochemistry using special mark GFAP,CNPase,βⅢ-tublin and TH. Results Neural cells isolated from the striatum and mescncephalic of embryonic rats brain were able to form neurospheres and were able to differentiate into different kinds of neural cells in vitro. The stem cells from striatum were able to pass more than 3 month,and mescncephalic cells survival 3 - 4 weeks under the same condition. TH+ cells counts were higher in culture of the mescncephalic. Conclusions The cells isolated from the striatum and mescncephalic of embryonic rats brain are multipotential neural stem/precursor cells. Stem cells from striatum has stronger ability to proliferate in vitro,but the cells from the mescncephalic are inclined to differentiate into TH+ cells.