Cultivation differentiatiation and its characteristics of rat spinal cord-derived neural stem cells

Objective To study the cultivation, differentiation and its characteristics of rat spinal cord derived neural stem cells. Methods Stem cells separated from the spinal cord of 17days old rat fetus were cultured and induced to differentiation in vitro. Their characteristics were detected by phase contrast microscopy and immunofluorescence. Results Induced by serum, spinal cord derived stem cells mainly differentiated into astrocytes and only a few into neural cells or oligodendrocytes. Comparing with neurocytes from brain derived stem cells, neural cells from spinal cord derived stem cells had much longer processes. Conclusions Spinal cord derived stem cells have the potential of self renewal and multi differentiation. They have some different characteristics from brain derived stem cells.