Abstract: To establish a method to isolate culture and identify the neural cells from postnatal Wistar rat hippocampus. The neural stem cells were isolated from postnatal 24 h Wistar rat hippocampus and cultured with DMEM containing 20% fetal bovine serum /F12 medium, and observation in inverted phase contrast microscope daily. The results showed that the neural stem cells isolated from postnatal Wistar rat hippocampus had reproductive activity and the exponential growth phase of neural stem cells was 2 to 8 d and maintain 30 d. The cells were identified by immunofluorescence expression of Nestin positive, and immunohistochemistry results showed that the cell bodies in the subculture and processes were NF-positive markers, GFAP antibody and CD68 antibody color were negative. Thus, the cells isolated and cultured from postnatal rat hippocampus had shown a strong ability of self-renewal proliferation and multipotency of differentiation which were evidently identified as the neural stem cells.

Key words: Wistar rat; hippocampus; neural stem cells; isolation and culture