NeuroCyte - Rat Neural Stem Cell Kit from Orion BioSolutions, Inc.

High quality ready-to-use cryopreserved neural stem cells (NCSs) complete with optimized base medium for growth and lineage commitment. Just thaw and plate these unique cells generated from E18 fetal rat brain in the format you need for a tissue-like mixture of in vitro stem/progenitor cells, neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. Better than neurospheres and primary E18 hippocampal preparations.

Orions scientists have developed a proprietary culture system for neural stem and progenitor cells. Using purified ECM components found in basement membranes in vivo, and our tissue-engineering expertise, we have recreated a microenvironment in vitro with the key molecules found in the germinal centers of the brain during fetal development. This process supports a unique mix of nestin expressing neuroepithelial stem cells and radial glial cell-like neuroglial progenitors, which retain the capacity for multi-lineage differentiation into astrocytes, neurons, and oligodendrocytes. NeuroCyte brings these cells to you in a ready to use format, so you dont have to waste time and money waiting for your neurospheres to grow.

Using FGF-2 as the primary mitogen in our own medium formulation which contains very low amounts of fetal bovine serum (less than 0.2%), neural stem cells are expanded for 3 to 4 passages prior to cryopreservation. You simply thaw the cryovial, add to the complete medium with ECM and bFGF provided in the kit, and plate. After 3-5 days NeuroCyte neural stem cells are ready for your experiments. This kit also provides an optimized minimal medium for multi-lineage commitment, through growth factor withdrawal and retinoic acid supplementation, perfect for experiments which examine the effects of test molecules on neural stem and progenitor cell differentiation.

Unlike neurospheres, Orions adherent culture allows for the normal planar polarity found in areas like the SVZ, where undifferentiated neuroepithelial sheets provide an anchor for directed radial glial cell process extension and subsequent neuroglial progenitor and neuroblast migration. The phase contrast photomicrographs above show how NeuroCyte neural stem cells look in culture, with an epithelial cluster below large radial glial-like cells with an extensive network of long branching processes. Once cultures are switched into the commitment base medium, growth factor withdrawal and retinoic acid induced differentiation proceeds (far right). With NeuroCyte-NSC intracellular FACS phenotyping kit, you can quantify a decrease in nestin expressing cells with an increase in baseline TUJ1/b-tubulin III neuroblasts and neurons. Orion also provides a focused microarray for gene expression analysis, StemChip.