The authors gratefully acknowledge Dr. Philip H. Schwartz of the National Human Neural Stem Cell Resource at the Children's Hospital, Orange County Research Institute for providing hNSPCs and initial instruction in their culturing.

Note: For routine culturing of our hNSPCs, we change 50-100% of the media every other day and usually passage them 1:2 once a week. The culture media contains 20% BIT-9500, 1X antibiotic/antimycotic, and growth factors (EGF, FGF, and PDGF each at 40 ng/ml) in DMEM:F12 base media.
Preparing the Coated Flask and Dissociating the Cells
<ol>
<li>To prepare new flasks for the passaged cells, coat T25 flasks with 10 &micro;g/ml human fibronectin in EMEM for 4 hours, or overnight, in a 37&deg;C tissue culture incubator. Right before passaging the cells, remove the fibronectin solution and rinse the flasks with PBS.</li>
<li>Transfer the old "conditioned" media from the cells to be passaged to the new fibronectin-coated flasks (such that half the final volume of media for each flask will be the "conditioned" media). These culturing conditions help keep these cells in their undifferentiated state.</li>
<li>Once all of the media is removed from the cells to be passaged, rinse the cells once with PBS. Take care to not dry out the cells.</li>
<li>Add Cell Dissociation Buffer (CDB) directly onto the cells (1.0-1.5 ml for a T25 flask). Incubate cells in the buffer for about 5 minutes at room temperature. Gently tapping the flask will help speed up cell detachment.</li>
</ol>
Centrifuging, Resuspending, and Plating Cells
<ol>
<li>Add serum-containing media (DMEM:F12 with 10% heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum) (use ~3X the volume of CDB) to the flask with detached cells. Remove the media and cells to a 15 ml conical tube. Use a small volume of fresh serum-containing media to rinse the flask and recover residual cells.</li>
<li>Centrifuge the media and cells at 1000 rpm (~200xg) for 5 minutes.</li>
<li>Suction off the serum-containing media and resuspend the cells in fresh culture media, pipetting up and down to make a homogeneous cell suspension.</li>
<li>Transfer half of&nbsp;the resuspended cells into each new flask for a 1:2 split. Note the new passage number on the flask.</li>
</ol>

<ol>
	<li>Flanagan, L. A., Rebaza, L. M., Derzic, S., Schwartz, P. H., Monuki, E. S. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Regulation+of+human+neural+precursor+cells+by+laminin+and+integrins.">Regulation of human neural precursor cells by laminin and integrins.</a> J. Neurosci. Res. 83, 845-856 (2006).</li><li>Nethercott, H. N., Maxwell, H., Schwartz, P. H., Loring, J. F., Wesselschmidt, R. W., Schwartz, P. H. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Neural+stem+cell+culture.">Neural stem cell culture.</a> Human Stem Cell Manual: A Laboratory Guide. , (2007).</li><li>Palmer, T. D., Schwartz, P. H., Taupin, P., Kaspar, B., Stein, S. A., Gage, F. H. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Cell+culture.+Progenitor+cells+from+human+brain+after+death.">Cell culture. Progenitor cells from human brain after death.</a> Nature. 411, 42-43 (2001).</li><li>Schwartz, P. H., Bryant, P. J., Fuja, T. J., Su, H., O'Dowd, D. K., Klassen, H. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Isolation+and+characterization+of+neural+progenitor+cells+from+post-mortem+human+cortex.">Isolation and characterization of neural progenitor cells from post-mortem human cortex.</a> J Neurosci Res. 74, 838-851 (2003).</li></ol>

We have found that this protocol provides reliable cultures of hNSPCs. One critical factor for our cells is that they need to be kept as fairly dense cultures and cannot be passaged to the point that the cells are sparse. In our hands, sparse cultures grow very slowly or completely cease dividing. For this reason, we usually split our cultures 1:2 or 1:3 when a culture is extremely dense. Coating the surface of a culture dish with fibronectin is important since it promotes good cell attachment and migration, but, unl...

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		<div>
		<table border="1">
		<thead>
		<tr>
		<th>Material Name</th>
		<th>Type</th>
		<th>Company</th>
		<th>Catalogue Number</th>
		<th>Comment</th>
		</tr>
		</thead>
		<tbody>
		
<tr>
<td>BIT-9500 (BSA, Insulin, Transferrin)</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Stem Cell Technologies</td>
<td>09500</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<tr>
<td>Antibiotic-Antimycotic</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Invitrogen</td>
<td>15240-062</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<tr>
<td>DMEM:F12 (1X)</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Invitrogen</td>
<td>11330-032</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<tr>
<td>EMEM (1X)</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Mediatech</td>
<td>MT-10-010-CV</td>
<td>Distributed by Fisher under the indicated catalog #</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Fetal Bovine Serum</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Invitrogen</td>
<td>10437-028</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<tr>
<td>FGF, human basic recombinant</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Peprotech</td>
<td>100-18B</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<tr>
<td>PDGF-AB</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Peprotech</td>
<td>100-00AB</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<tr>
<td>EGF, human recombinant</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>BD Biosciences</td>
<td>CB40052</td>
<td>Distributed by Fisher under the indicated catalog #</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cell Culture Flask, 25 cm2</td>
<td>Tool</td>
<td>Corning</td>
<td>10-126-28</td>
<td>Distributed by Fisher under the indicated catalog #</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Fibronectin, human, natural</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>BD Biosciences</td>
<td>CB40008A</td>
<td>Distributed by Fisher under the indicated catalog #</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Human Neural Stem/Precursor Cells</td>
<td>Cells</td>
<td>National Human Neural Stem Cell Resource http://www.nhnscr.org/default.htm </td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<tr>
<td>Cell Dissociation Buffer</td>
<td>Reagent</td>
<td>Invitrogen</td>
<td>13150-016</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>		</tbody>
		</table>
		</div>
			<div>
					</div>

passaging human neural stem cells

The ability to manipulate human neural stem/precursor cells (hNSPCs) in vitro provides a means to investigate their utility as cell transplants for therapeutic purposes as well as to explore many fundamental processes of human neural development and pathology.  This protocol presents a simple method of culturing and passaging hNSPCs in hopes of standardizing this technique and increasing reproducibility of human stem cell research.  The hNSPCs we use were isolated from cadaveric postnatal brain cortices by the National Human Neural Stem Cell Resource and grown as adherent cultures on flasks coated with fibronectin (Palmer et al., 2001; Schwartz et al., 2003).  We culture our hNSPCs in a DMEM:F12 serum-free media supplemented with EGF, FGF, and PDGF and passage them 1:2 approximately every seven days.  Using these conditions, the majority of the cells in the culture maintain a bipolar morphology and express markers of undifferentiated neural stem cells (such as nestin and sox2).

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Passaging Human Neural Stem Cells at JoVE.com

Passaging Human Neural Stem Cells

The ability to manipulate human neural stem/precursor cells (hNSPCs) in vitro allows to investigate their utility as cell transplants for therapeutic purposes and to explore human neural development. This protocol presents a method of culturing and passaging hNSPCs in hopes of increasing reproducibility of human stem cell research.

The ability to manipulate human neural stem/precursor cells (hNSPCs) in vitro provides a means to investigate their utility as cell transplants for ...

Research

JoVE Journal

Biology

14.5K Views.  University of California, Irvine (UCI). The ability to manipulate human neural stem/precursor cells (hNSPCs) in vitro allows to investigate their utility as cell transplants for therapeutic purposes and to explore human neural development. This protocol presents a method of culturing and passaging hNSPCs in hopes of increasing reproducibility of human stem cell research.

Video: Passaging Human Neural Stem Cells

Passaging HuES Human Embryonic Stem Cell-lines with Trypsin.

In this video we demonstrate how our lab routinely passages HuES human embryonic stem cell lines with trypsin.  Human embryonic stem cells are artifacts of cell culture, and tend to acquire karyotypic abnormalities with high population doublings.  Proper passaging is essential for maintaining a healthy, undifferentiated, karyotypically normal HuES human embryonic stem cell culture.  First, an expanding culture is washed in PBS to remove residual media and cell debris, then cells are overlaid with a minimal volume of warm 0.05% Trypsin-EDTA.  Trypsin is left on the cells for up to five minutes, then cells are gently dislodged with a 2mL serological pipette.  The cell suspension is collected and mixed with a large volume of HuES media, then cells are collected by gentle centrifugation.  The inactivated trypsin media mixture is removed, and cells resuspended in pre-warmed HuES media.  An appropriate split ratio is calculated (generally 1:10 to 1:20), and cells re-plated onto a 1-2 day old plate containing a monolayer of irradiated mouse embryonic fibroblast feeder cells.  The newly seeded HuES culture plate is left undisturbed for 48 hrs, then media is changed every day thereafter.  It is important not to trpsinize down to a single cell suspension, as this increases the risk of introducing karyotypic abnormalities.

In this video we demonstrate how our lab routinely passages HuES human embryonic stem cell lines with trypsin. Brought to you by JoVE.

In this video we demonstrate how our lab routinely passages HuES human embryonic stem cell lines with trypsin.  Human embryonic stem cells are artifacts ...

Propagation of Human Embryonic Stem (ES) Cells

Propagation of Human Embryonic Stem ES Cells

Transfecting Human Neural Stem Cells with the Amaxa Nucleofector

Transfection of primary mammalian neural cells, such as human neural stem/precursor cells (hNSPCs), with commonly used cationic lipid transfection reagents has often resulted in poor cell viability and low transfection efficiency.  Other mechanical methods of introducing a gene of interest, such as a &#8220;gene gun&#8221; or microinjection, are also limited by poor cell viability and low numbers of transfected cells.  The strategy of using viral constructs to introduce an exogenous gene into primary cells has been constrained by both the amount of time and labor required to create viral vectors and potential safety concerns.  We describe here a step-by-step protocol for transfecting hNSPCs using Amaxa's Nucleofector device and technology with electrical current parameters and buffer solutions specifically optimized for transfecting neural stem cells.  Using this protocol, we have achieved initial transfection efficiencies of ~35% and ~70% after stable transfection.  The protocol entails combining a high number of hNSPCs with the DNA to be transfected in the appropriate buffer followed by electroporation with the Nucleofector device.

Introducing a gene of interest into a cell is a powerful method for elucidating its function in vivo. This protocol describes an efficient method of transfecting a culture of human neural stem/precursor cells (hNSPCs) using the Nucleofector electroporation apparatus made by Amaxa.

Transfection of primary mammalian neural cells, such as human neural stem/precursor cells (hNSPCs), with commonly used cationic lipid transfection ...

Counting Human Neural Stem Cells

Knowledge of the exact number of viable cells in a given volume of a cell suspension is required for many routine tissue culture manipulations, such as plating cells for immunocytochemistry or for cell transfections. This protocol describes a straightforward and fast method for differentiating between live and dead cells and quantifying the cell concentration and total cell number using a hemacytometer. This procedure first requires detaching cells from a growth surface and resuspending them in media. Next, the cells are diluted in a solution of Trypan blue (ideally to a concentration that will give 20-50 cells per quadrant) and placed in the hemacytometer. Finally, averaging the counts of viable cells in several randomly selected quadrants, dividing the average by the volume of one 1 mm2 quadrant (0.1 &mu;l) and multiplying by the dilution factor gives the number of cells per l. Multiplying this cell concentration by the total volume in &mu;l gives the total cell number. This protocol describes counting human neural stem/precursor cells (hNSPCs), but can also be used for many other cell types.

Knowledge of the exact number of viable cells is required for many tissue culture manipulations. This protocol describes how to differentiate between live and dead cells and quantify cells using a hemacytometer. Although it describes counting human neural stem/precursor cells (hNSPCs), it can be used for other cell types.

Knowledge of the exact number of viable cells in a given volume of a cell suspension is required for many routine tissue culture manipulations, such as ...

Immunocytochemistry: Human Neural Stem Cells

Immunocytochemistry is a very powerful and fairly straightforward method for determining the presence, subcellular localization, and relative abundance of an antigen of interest, most commonly a protein, in cultured cells. This protocol presents an easy-to-follow series of steps that will enable researchers to conserve primary and secondary antibodies while getting high quality, reproducible qualitative and quantitative data out of their staining. There are two aspects of this protocol that help to conserve the volume of antibody necessary for staining. For one, the cells are grown on small, circular coverslips that are placed in wells of a tissue culture plate. After fixation, the cells on coverslips can be removed from the wells of the plate. For antibody staining, the coverslip with cells is inverted onto a small drop of antibody solution on parafilm and is covered with a second piece of parafilm to prevent drying. Using this method, only ~25 &mu;l of antibody solution is needed for each coverslip (or sample) to be stained. This protocol describes immunostaining of human neural stem/precursor cells (hNSPCs), but can be used for many other cell types.

Immunocytochemistry is a powerful method to determine the presence, subcellular localization, and relative abundance of an antigen of interest in cultured cells. This protocol presents an easy-to-follow series of steps that will enable one to conserve antibodies and get the most out of one's staining.

Immunocytochemistry is a very powerful and fairly straightforward method for determining the presence, subcellular localization, and relative abundance of ...

Derivation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells by Immunosurgery

The ability of human embryonic stem cells to self-renew and differentiate into all cell types of 
the body suggests that they hold great promise for both medical applications and as a research 
tool for addressing fundamental questions in development and disease. Here, we provide a 
concise, step-by-step protocol for the derivation of human embryonic stem cells from embryos 
by immunosurgical isolation of the inner cell mass. 


The ability of human embryonic stem cells to self-renew and differentiate into all cell types of 
the body suggests that they hold great promise for both medical applications and as a research 
tool for addressing fundamental questions in development and disease. Here, we provide a 
concise, step-by-step protocol for the derivation of human embryonic stem cells from embryos 
by immunosurgical isolation of the inner cell mass.

The ability of human embryonic stem cells to self-renew and differentiate into all cell types of 
the body suggests that they hold great promise for both ...

Mouse Epidermal Neural Crest Stem Cell (EPI-NCSC) Cultures

EPI-NCSC are remnants of the embryonic neural crest in an adult location, the bulge of hair follicles. They are multipotent stem cells that have the physiological property to generate a wide array of differentiated cell types, including neurons, nerve supporting cells, smooth muscle cells, bone/cartilage cells and melanocytes. EPI-NCSC are easily accessible in the hairy skin and can be isolated as a highly pure population of stem cells. This video provides a detailed protocol for preparing mouse EPI-NCSC cultures from whisker follicles. The whisker pad of an adult mouse is removed, and whisker follicles dissected. The follicles are then cut longitudinally and subsequently transversely above and below the bulge region. The bulge is removed from the collagen capsule and placed in a culture plate. EPI-NCSC start to emigrate from the bulge explants 3 to 4 days later.

Mouse Epidermal Neural Crest Stem Cell EPI-NCSC Cultures

Here we show our method to isolate mouse epidermal neural crest stem cells (EPI-NCSC). Technique involves micro-dissecting whisker follicles, isolating the bulge and placeing it into tissue culture. EPI-NCSC start to emigrate from bulge explants onto the substratum within 3 - 4 days.

EPI-NCSC are remnants of the embryonic neural crest in an adult location, the bulge of hair follicles. They are multipotent stem cells that have the ...

Chromatin Immunoprecipitation from Human Embryonic Stem Cells

The functional and structural complexity of the myriad of cells in metazoan organisms arises from a small number of stem cells. Stem cells are characterized by two fundamental properties: self-renewal and multipotency that allows a stem cell to differentiate into virtually any cell type 1. The progression stem cell to differentiated cell is characterized by loss of multipotency, structural and morphological changes and the hierarchic activity of transcription factors and signaling molecules, whose activities establish and maintain cell-type specific gene expression patterns. At the molecular level, cell differentiation involves dynamic changes of the structure and composition of chromatin and the detection of those dynamic changes can provide valuable insights into the functional features of stem cells and the cell differentiation process 2,3. Chromatin is a highly compacted DNA-protein complex that forms when cells package chromosomal DNA with proteins, mainly histones 4. Stemcellness and cell differentiation has been correlated with the presence of specific arrays of regulatory proteins such as epigenetic factors, histone variants, and transcription factors 2,3,5.
 Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) provides a valuable method to monitor the presence of RNA, proteins, and protein modifications in chromatin 6,7. The comparison of chromatin from different cell types can elucidate dynamic changes in protein-chromatin associations that occur during cell differentiation.
Chromatin immunoprecipitation involves the purification of in vivo cross-linked chromatin. The isolated chromatin is reduced to smaller fragments by enzymatic digestion or mechanical force. Chromatin fragments are precipitated using specific antibodies to target proteins or protein and DNA modifications. The precipitated DNA or RNA is purified and used as a template for PCR or DNA microarray based assays. Prerequisites for a successful ChIP are high quality antibodies to the desired antigen and the availability of chromatin from control cells that do not express the target molecule. ChIP can correlate the presence of proteins, protein and RNA modifications, and RNA with specific target DNA, and depending on the choice of outread tool, detects the association of target molecules at specific target genes or in the context of an entire genome. The comparison of the distribution of proteins in the chromatin of differentiating cells can elucidate the dynamic changes of chromatin composition that coincide with the progression of cells along a cell lineage.

The differentiation of ESC coincides with cell-type specific changes in the structure and composition of chromatin. The detection of those changes provides valuable insights into the mechanisms that define stemcellness and cell differentiation. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) represents a valuable method to dissect the molecular mechanisms underlying stem cell differentiation.

The functional and structural complexity of the myriad of cells in metazoan organisms arises from a small number of stem cells. Stem cells are ...

Freezing and Thawing Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Since James Thomson et al developed a technique in 1998 to isolate and grow hES in culture, freezing cells for later use and thawing and expanding cells from a frozen stock have become important procedures performed in routine hES cell culture. Since hES cells are very sensitive to the stresses of freezing and thawing, special care must taken. Here we demonstrate the proper technique for rapidly thawing hES cells from liquid nitrogen stocks, plating them on mouse embryonic feeder cells, and slowly freezing them for long-term storage.

Since James Thomson et al developed a technique in 1998 to isolate and grow hES in culture, freezing cells for later use and thawing and expanding cells from a frozen stock have become important procedures performed in routine hES cell culture. Since hES cells are very sensitive to the stresses of freezing and thawing, special care must taken. Here we demonstrate the proper technique for rapidly thawing hES cells from liquid nitrogen stocks, plating them on mouse embryonic feeder cells, and slowly freezing them for long-term storage.

Since James Thomson et al developed a technique in 1998 to isolate and grow hES in culture, freezing cells for later use and thawing and expanding cells ...

Differentiation of Embryonic Stem Cells into Oligodendrocyte Precursors

Oligodendrocytes are the myelinating cells of the central nervous system. For regenerative cell therapy in demyelinating diseases, there is significant interest in deriving a pure population of lineage-committed oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) for transplantation. OPCs are characterized by the activity of the transcription factor Olig2 and surface expression of a proteoglycan NG2. Using the GFP-Olig2 (G-Olig2) mouse embryonic stem cell (mESC) reporter line, we optimized conditions for the differentiation of mESCs into GFP+Olig2+NG2+ OPCs. In our protocol, we first describe the generation of embryoid bodies (EBs) from mESCs. Second, we describe treatment of mESC-derived EBs with small molecules: (1) retinoic acid (RA) and (2) a sonic hedgehog (Shh) agonist purmorphamine (Pur) under defined culture conditions to direct EB differentiation into the oligodendroglial lineage. By this approach, OPCs can be obtained with high efficiency (&gt;80%) in a time period of 30 days. Cells derived from mESCs in this protocol are phenotypically similar to OPCs derived from primary tissue culture. The mESC-derived OPCs do not show the spiking property described for a subpopulation of brain OPCs in situ. To study this electrophysiological property, we describe the generation of spiking mESC-derived OPCs by ectopically expressing NaV1.2 subunit. The spiking and nonspiking cells obtained from this protocol will help advance functional studies on the two subpopulations of OPCs.

We describe a small molecule-based protocol for differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells into oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs). This protocol generates Olig2+NG2+ OPCs with high efficiency by 30 days of differentiation. We also describe a method to generate "spiking" OPCs that can fire action potentials.

Oligodendrocytes are the myelinating cells of the central nervous system. For regenerative cell therapy in demyelinating diseases, there is significant ...