Long-term cultivation of multipotential neural stem cells from adult rat subependyma

Cultivation of adult rat neural stem cells (RNSCs) from the ventricular subependyma has been reported to be more difficult than growth of mouse neural stem cells. This is unfortunate, because rats provide useful models of brain function and disease, and implantation of RNSCs in these models could provide critical information on allograft behavior. Growing the cells in an appropriate medium (NS-A+B27 supplement), plating at sufficient densities (>5 cells per mm²), and minimizing opportunities for detachment from the substratum made it possible to isolate and cultivate these cells for over 6 months for >50 passages with no apparent change in phenotype. Single clones could be expanded indefinitely and differentiated to form astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and neurons, demonstrating that the cultures did indeed contain neural stem cells. The cells had a much shorter cell cycle time (13 h) than doubling time (35 h), suggesting that these cells produce post-mitotic cells in approximately two of three divisions, thus making expansion difficult. The optimization of methods to grow adult RNSCs and identification of characteristics that limit their growth should prove useful in increasing the use of RNSCs for studies of their potential role in brain health and disease.