In vitro differentiation of multipotent human neural progenitors in serum-free medium

Stem cells are exciting candidates for therapeutic strategies in neurodegen erative diseases, due to their multipotency and migratory capabilities. We show that stem cell-like embryonic normal human neural progenitors (HNPs) a re capable of proliferating in response to mitogenic growth factors and dif ferentiate into diverse CNS cell types in vitro. We present evidence that H NPs differentiate to beta III-tubulin-, glial fibrillary acidic protein- an d O4- immune-positive cells, in both a fetal bovine serum-containing and a non-supplemented, serum-free basal medium. From these findings, we propose that HNPs may differentiate not only in response to exogenous differentiati on factor(s) contained in the serum, hut also in response to some endogenou s factor(s) released from the HNPs, which may regulate the differentiation pathway of these cells. NeuroReport 11:1123-1128 (C) 2000 Lippincott Willia ms & Wilkins.