Zika Virus Infection of Cultured Human Fetal Brain Neural Stem Cells for Immunocytochemical Analysis

Human fetal brain neural stem cells are a unique non-genetically modified model system to study the impact of various stimuli on human developmental neurobiology. Rather than use an animal model or genetically modified induced pluripotent cells, human neural stem cells provide an effective in vitro system to examine the effects of treatments, screen drugs, or examine individual differences. Here, we provide the detailed protocols for methods used to expand human fetal brain neural stem cells in culture with serum-free media, to differentiate them into various neuronal subtypes and astrocytes via different priming procedures, and to freeze and recover these cells. Furthermore, we describe a procedure of using human fetal brain neural stem cells to study Zika virus infection.