Isolation and generation of oligodendrocytes by immunopanning

This unit presents a procedure for the purification of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells, their expansion in vitro, and differentiation of these cells to yield oligodendrocyte cultures. A variation is also presented, detailing the direct isolation of differentiated oligodendrocytes from postnatal brain. The purification of the target cell population is achieved by exploiting the differential binding of cells to tissue culture dishes coated with an antibody directed against a specific cell-surface antigen. Cells expressing this surface antigen are retained on the dish and are thereby separated from the remaining cell population.