Abstract
The propagation of neural precursors in culture is an essential tool for the study of the signaling matrix that regulates their proliferation, self-renewal, and generation of terminally differentiated progeny. Neural precursors can be expanded in vitro using both adherent and non-adherent culture protocols. The culture of fetal human neural precursors in the absence of serum as free-floating clusters of cells termed neurospheres is described here.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Reynolds BA, Weiss S (1992) Generation of neurons and astrocytes from isolated cells of the adult mammalian central nervous system. Science 255(5052):1707–1710
Singh SK et al (2004) Identification of human brain tumour initiating cells. Nature 432(7015):396–401
Pardal R et al (2007) Glia-like stem cells sustain physiologic neurogenesis in the adult mammalian carotid body. Cell 131(2):364–377
Buffo A, Rite I, Tripathi P, Lepier A, Colak D, Horn AP, Mori T, Gotz M (2008) Origin and progeny of reactive gliosis: a source of multipotent cells in the injured brain. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105(9):3581–3586
Berthois Y, Katzenellenbogen JA, Katzenellenbogen BS (1986) Phenol red in tissue culture media is a weak estrogen: implications concerning the study of estrogen-responsive cells in culture. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 83(8):2496–2500
Noble M, Mayer-Proschel M, Proschel C (2005) Redox regulation of precursor cell function: insights and paradoxes. Antioxid Redox Signal 7(11–12):1456–1467
Rand MD et al (2000) Calcium depletion dissociates and activates heterodimeric notch receptors. Mol Cell Biol 20(5):1825–1835
Liu J, Sato C, Cerletti M, Wagers A (2010) Notch signaling in the regulation of stem cell self-renewal and differentiation. Curr Top Dev Biol 92:367–409
Coles-Takabe BL et al (2008) Don’t look: growing clonal versus nonclonal neural stem cell colonies. Stem Cells 26(11):2938–2944
Chojnacki A et al (2008) Distinctions between fetal and adult human platelet-derived growth factor-responsive neural precursors. Ann Neurol 64(2):127–142
Capela A, Temple S (2002) LeX/ssea-1 is expressed by adult mouse CNS stem cells, identifying them as nonependymal. Neuron 35(5):865–875
Mabie PC et al (1997) Bone morphogenetic proteins induce astroglial differentiation of oligodendroglial-astroglial progenitor cells. J Neurosci 17(11):4112–4120
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by a Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada Grant to A.C. and S.W., and a Canadian Institutes of Health Research grant to S.W.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Chojnacki, A., Weiss, S. (2013). Culturing Fetal Precursor Cells Using Free Floating Serum-Free Conditions. In: Reynolds, B., Deleyrolle, L. (eds) Neural Progenitor Cells. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1059. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-574-3_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-574-3_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ
Print ISBN: 978-1-62703-573-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-62703-574-3
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols