Identification and culture of neural stem cells from rat

Objective：To culture and identify neural stem cells of hippocampus and striatum respectively from P1 rat brain and adult rat brain．Methods：Hippocampus and striatum tissue were respectively dissected out from P1 rat and adult rat brain and made into single- cell suspension，which was cultured in DMEM/F12 with the presence of bFGF，EGF and B27．After neurospheres formed they were repeatedly passaged every 8-10 days．Neurospheres and differentiated cells were identified by immunocytochemisty．Results：Cells under above culture conditions continuously proliferated and formed neurospheres which were nestin positive．Differentiated cells took on the shapes of neuron and astrocyte cell and were NSE and GFAP positive respectively．Conclusion：There are neural stem cells in hippocampus and striatum of P1 and adult rat．