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Astrocytogenesis of embryonic stem-cell-derived neural stem cells: Default differentiation.

Nakayama T, Sai T, Otsu M, Momoki-Soga T, Inoue N

Department of Biochemistry, Yokohama City University School of Medicine, Yokohama, Japan. nakayama@med.yokohama-cu.ac.jp

Neural stem cells differentiate from embryonic stem cells via formation of neural stem spheres under free-floating conditions in astrocyte-conditioned medium. Subsequent culture of neural stem spheres on an adhesive substrate with fibroblast growth factor-2 promotes the migration of neural stem cells onto the substrate, resulting in an increase in the number of cells. These embryonic stem cell-derived neural stem cells can be differentiated almost exclusively into astrocytes by withdrawing fibroblast growth factor-2 from the medium without any additional instructions.

Published 7 September 2006 in Neuroreport, 17(14): 1519-23.
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