Culturing Neural Stem Cells

Stem cell culture is similar to growing and maintaining other cells - the key is to just be very careful. It's important not to be tough on the cells at any step of the culturing/passaging, even when moving the flask around. This may change the cells phenotype (what they present and behave as), which is critical to maintain.

To culture neural stem cells, I follow the neurosphere method. This requires first breaking up the cells from clumps using trypsin. After the cells are in a single cell suspension, I add chemicals to maintain their health, and re-suspend them in a new culture flask. The cells then being to clump together as they grow and divide, forming a sphere (which is why the method is called the neurosphere method). When the spheres become too large, the cells in the middle cant receive the nutrients they need, so I passage the cells fore they start dying. This method has worked well, and I have several lines of healthy and functional neural stem cells ready to go for the experiments!