Abstract
Stem cells exist in many, perhaps all, adult tissues and serve the common function of a reservoir of precursors that can mediate cell turnover or repair damage. Among tissue-specific stem cell populations, neural stem cells are particularly amenable to study because they are readily isolated and cultured in simple culture systems that allow demonstration of cell-autonomous self-renewal and multipotentiality. Here, we describe the most widely employed culture system, the neurosphere assay, used to reveal these cardinal properties of neural stem cells which respond to specific growth factors and proliferate in serum-free media to form clonal sphere colonies. Although several pitfalls and limitations exist, the neurosphere assay can provide detailed information about kinetics and behavior of neural stem cells when utilized under appropriate conditions. Further, the neurosphere assay together with histochemical analysis using nucleotide analog labeling may be applied to estimate the number and cellular kinetics of neural stem cells in the adult brain under physiological and pathological conditions.
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Hitoshi, S., Kippin, T., van der Kooy, D. (2011). Culturing Adult Neural Stem Cells: Application to the Study of Neurodegenerative and Neuropsychiatric Pathology. In: Seki, T., Sawamoto, K., Parent, J.M., Alvarez-Buylla, A. (eds) Neurogenesis in the Adult Brain II. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-53945-2_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-53945-2_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Tokyo
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