Oligodendrocytes form myelin in the CNS. A fast method to produce large quantity of oligodendrocytes that have the capacity of myelinating CNS neurons would be very useful for treating CNS injuries or demyelinating diseases, or for research purposes. We developed a simple standard protocol for predominant differentiation of rat fetal neural stem cells (NSCs) into oligodendrocytes. We adopted a new method to purify the oligodendrocytes and co-cultured the newly differentiated oligodendrocytes with hippocampal neurons to confirm their myelination capability. NSCs from embryonic day 14 (E14) were propagated at the presence of basic fibroblast growth factor and platelet derived growth factor alpha, and then differentiated in the medium containing triiodothyronine. Four extracellular matrix (ECM), poly-d-lysine (PDL), PDL-laminin, fibronectin, and matrigel, were examined for NSC differentiation. About 90 % of NSCs differentiated into oligodendrocytes on matrigel compared to 32 % on PDL or PDL-laminin, and 26 % on fibronectin after 3 weeks of differentiation, demonstrating the significant influence of ECM. Further, newly differentiated oligodendrocytes were co-cultured with hippocampal neurons from E18 rat embryos resulting in robust myelination of neurites at three weeks. In summary, we present a simplified and efficient method to predominantly generate oligodendrocytes from NSCs that is potentially very useful for CNS demyelination diseases.

少突胶质细胞在中枢神经系统中形成髓磷脂。快速产生具有使CNS神经元有能力的少突胶质细胞的快速方法对于治疗CNS损伤或脱髓鞘疾病或研究目的非常有用。我们开发了一种简单的标准协议，用于将大鼠胎儿神经干细胞（NSC）分化为少突胶质细胞。我们采用了一种纯化少突胶质细胞的新方法，并将新分化的少突胶质细胞与海马神经元共培养以确认其髓鞘形成能力。胚胎第14天（E14）的NSC在碱性成纤维细胞生长因子和血小板衍生生长因子α的存在下繁殖，然后在含有三碘甲状腺素的培养基中分化。四个细胞外基质（ECM），聚d检查了赖氨酸（PDL），PDL-laminin，纤连蛋白和基质胶的NSC分化。分化3周后，约90％的NSC在基质胶上分化为少突胶质细胞，而PDL或PDL-laminin分化为32％，纤连蛋白为26％，这证明了ECM的显着影响。此外，将新分化的少突胶质细胞与来自E18大鼠胚胎的海马神经元共培养，从而在三周时产生强烈的神经突髓鞘。总之，我们提出了一种简单有效的方法，主要从NSC产生少突胶质细胞，这对于中枢神经系统脱髓鞘疾病可能非常有用。