[Human nerve stem cells in vitro]

The expansion of Nest-positive nerve stem cells fraction in the culture of human fetal brain was investigated in this work. Our results demonstrated the valuable increase of the percentage of Nest-positive cells from 44.1 to 62.5% of cell population at the response to the presence of EGF and bFGF and using the heat-inactivated serum in the culture medium. Further differentiation in culture tended to decrease of Nest-positive cell amount. Stimulation of the neuroinduction with retinoic acid resulted in decrease of the percentage of these cells in the population to 14.1%. This data allowed obtaining the nerve cell population more effective for using as a graft material in cell therapy.