Neural stem cells

摘要

Provided is a method of obtaining and maintaining a transfected population of symmetrically dividing neural stem cells, the method comprising: (a) transfecting ES cells with a construct encoding a selectable marker A, wherein said ES cells are not totipotent human ES cells and wherein said selectable marker A is expressible under the control of a neural stem cell-specific promoter; (b) promoting differentiation of the ES cells to neural stem cells; (c) selecting for cells that express the selectable marker A, wherein at least 80% of the selected cells are symmetrically-dividing neural stem cells and wherein no more than I% of the selected cells are positive for the expression of markers for mature astrocytes, neurons or oligodendrocytes; and (d) culturing the selected cells attached to a substrate in a medium containing: (i) an activator of a signalling pathway downstream from a receptor of the EGF family; and (ii) an activator of a signalling pathway downstream from an FGF receptor. Further provided are neural stem cell lines obtained by the method.