Regulation of glial differentiation of MHP36 neural multipotent cell line

MHP36 is a nestin bFGF-dependent cell line isolated from embryonic hippocampus using a thermolabile form of SV40 T antigen. When grafted in ischemic hippocampus MHP36 cells differentiate and alleviate the cognitive deficit associated with the lesion. We report here in vitro features of MHP36 cells. First, we found that T Ag expression was not necessary for MHP36 growth as cells cultured at the nonpermissive temperature carry on proliferating at a normal rate, Second, we observed that part of MHP36 cells spontaneously differentiate into astrocytes when bFGF is removed at39 degrees C. This differentiation was increased 4-fold by leukemia inhibitory factor. Third, we found that the majority of cells spontaneously expressed oligodendrocytic markers (CNPase, A2B5, GalC) when cultured at low density.