Neural Differentiation Of Embryonic Stem Cells Research Articles

Role of Histamine H3 Receptor Antagonist Pitolisant in Early Neural Differentiation of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells.

The histamine H3 receptor, prominently expressed in neurons with a minor presence in glial cells, acts as both an autoreceptor and an alloreceptor, controlling the release of histamine and other neurotransmitters. The receptor impacts various essential physiological processes. Our team's initial investigations had demonstrated that the histamine H3 receptor antagonists could facilitate nerve regeneration by promoting the histamine H1 receptors on primary neural stem cells (NSCs) in the traumatic brain injury mouse, which suggested the potential of histamine H3 receptor as a promising target for treating neurological disorders and promoting nerve regeneration. Pitolisant (PITO) is the only histamine H3 receptor antagonist approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating narcolepsy. However, there is no report on Pitolisant in neural development or regeneration, and it is urgent to be further studied in strong biological activity models in vitro. The embryonic stem (ES) cells were differentiated into neural cells in vitro, which replicated the neurodevelopmental processes that occur in vivo. It also provided an alternative model for studying neurodevelopmental processes and testing drugs for neurological conditions. Therefore, we aimed to elucidate the regulatory role of Pitolisant in the early differentiation of ES cells into neural cells. Our results demonstrated that Pitolisant could promote the differentiation of ES cells toward NSCs and stimulated the formation of growth cones. Furthermore, Pitolisant was capable of inducing the polarization of NSCs through the cAMP-LKB1-SAD/MARK2 pathway, but had no significant effect on later neuronal maturation. Pitolisant altered mitochondrial morphology and upregulated the levels of mitochondrion-related proteins TOM20, Drp1, and p-Drp1, and reversed the inhibitory effect of Mdivi-1 on mitochondrial fission during the early neural differentiation of ES cells. In addition, Pitolisant induced the increase in cytosolic Ca2+. Our study provided an experimental foundation for the potential application of histamine H3 receptor-targeted modulators in the field of neuroregeneration.

Embryonic Stem Cells Lacking DNA Methyltransferases Differentiate into Neural Stem Cells that Are Defective in Self-Renewal.

DNA methyltransferases (Dnmts) play an important role in regulating DNA methylation during early developmental processes and cellular differentiation. In this study, we aimed to investigate the role of Dnmts in neural differentiation of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and in maintenance of the resulting neural stem cells (NSCs). We used three types of Dnmt knockout (KO) ESCs, including Dnmt1 KO, Dnmt3a/3b double KO (Dnmt3 DKO), and Dnmt1/3a/3b triple KO (Dnmt TKO), to investigate the role of Dnmts in neural differentiation of ESCs. All three types of Dnmt KO ESCs could form neural rosette and differentiate into NSCs in vitro. Interestingly, however, after passage three, Dnmt KO ESC-derived NSCs could not maintain their self-renewal and differentiated into neurons and glial cells. Taken together, the data suggested that, although deficiency of Dnmts had no effect on the differentiation of ESCs into NSCs, the latter had defective maintenance, thereby indicating that Dnmts are crucial for self-renewal of NSCs.

Critical regulation of a NDIME/MEF2C axis in embryonic stem cell neural differentiation and autism.

A microdeletion within human chromosome 5q14.3 has been associated with the occurrence of neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism and intellectual disability, and MEF2C haploinsufficiency was identified as main cause. Here, we report that a brain-enriched long non-coding RNA,NDIME, is located near the MEF2C locus and is required for normal neural differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs). NDIME interacts with EZH2, the major component of polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2), and blocks EZH2-mediated trimethylation of histone H3 lysine 27 (H3K27me3) at the Mef2c promoter, promoting MEF2C transcription. Moreover, the expression levels of both NDIME and MEF2C were strongly downregulated in the hippocampus of a mouse model of autism, and the adeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated expression of NDIME in the hippocampus of these mice significantly increased MEF2C expression and ameliorated autism-like behaviors. The results of this study reveal an epigenetic mechanism by which NDIME regulates MEF2C transcription and neural differentiation and suggest potential effects and therapeutic approaches of the NDIME/MEF2C axis in autism.

Generation of Rybp homozygous knockout murine ES cell line GIBHe001-A-1 by using CRISPR/Cas9 technology.

RYBP (Ring1 and YY1 Binding Protein) is critical for pluripotency and differentiation of embryonic stem cells (ESCs). RYBP depletion disturbs both neural and myocardial differentiation of ESCs. Moreover, low level of RYBP is correlated with diseases such as glioblastoma. To study the biological function of RYBP in neural differentiation of ESCs, here we generated Rybp homozygous knockout murine ESC line based on Sox1-GFP reporter using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology. The last two exons of Rybp gene in which contain 115 amino acids have been replaced with PGK-Pruo by homologous recombination.

Long Noncoding RNA-1604 Orchestrates Neural Differentiation through the miR-200c/ZEB Axis.

Clarifying the regulatory mechanisms of embryonic stem cell (ESC) neural differentiation is helpful not only for understanding neural development but also for obtaining high-quality neural progenitor cells required by stem cell therapy of neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we found that long noncoding RNA 1604 (lncRNA-1604) was highly expressed in cytoplasm during neural differentiation, and knockdown of lncRNA-1604 significantly repressed neural differentiation of mouse ESCs both in vitro and in vivo. Bioinformatics prediction and mechanistic analysis revealed that lncRNA-1604 functioned as a novel competing endogenous RNA of miR-200c and regulated the core transcription factors ZEB1 and ZEB2 during neural differentiation. Furthermore, we also demonstrated the critical role of miR-200c and ZEB1/2 in mouse neural differentiation. Either introduction of miR-200c sponge or overexpression of ZEB1/2 significantly reversed the lncRNA-1604 knockdown-induced repression of mouse ESC neural differentiation. Collectively, these findings not only identified a previously unknown role of lncRNA-1604 and ZEB1/2 but also elucidated a new regulatory lncRNA-1604/miR-200c/ZEB axis in neural differentiation. Stem Cells 2018;36:325-336.

Mir-29b Mediates the Neural Tube versus Neural Crest Fate Decision during Embryonic Stem Cell Neural Differentiation.

SummaryDuring gastrulation, the neuroectoderm cells form the neural tube and neural crest. The nervous system contains significantly more microRNAs than other tissues, but the role of microRNAs in controlling the differentiation of neuroectodermal cells into neural tube epithelial (NTE) cells and neural crest cells (NCCs) remains unknown. Using embryonic stem cell (ESC) neural differentiation systems, we found that miR-29b was upregulated in NTE cells and downregulated in NCCs. MiR-29b promoted the differentiation of ESCs into NTE cells and inhibited their differentiation into NCCs. Accordingly, the inhibition of miR-29b significantly inhibited the differentiation of NTE cells. A mechanistic study revealed that miR-29b targets DNA methyltransferase 3a (Dnmt3a) to regulate neural differentiation. Moreover, miR-29b mediated the function of Pou3f1, a critical neural transcription factor. Therefore, our study showed that the Pou3f1-miR-29b-Dnmt3a regulatory axis was active at the initial stage of neural differentiation and regulated the determination of cell fate.

Tracking the evolution of epialleles during neural differentiation and brain development: D-Aspartate oxidase as a model gene

ABSTRACTWe performed ultra-deep methylation analysis at single molecule level of the promoter region of developmentally regulated D-Aspartate oxidase (Ddo), as a model gene, during brain development and embryonic stem cell neural differentiation. Single molecule methylation analysis enabled us to establish the effective epiallele composition within mixed or pure brain cell populations. In this framework, an epiallele is defined as a specific combination of methylated CpG within Ddo locus and can represent the epigenetic haplotype revealing a cell-to-cell methylation heterogeneity. Using this approach, we found a high degree of polymorphism of methylated alleles (epipolymorphism) evolving in a remarkably conserved fashion during brain development. The different sets of epialleles mark stage, brain areas, and cell type and unravel the possible role of specific CpGs in favoring or inhibiting local methylation. Undifferentiated embryonic stem cells showed non-organized distribution of epialleles that apparently originated by stochastic methylation events on individual CpGs. Upon neural differentiation, despite detecting no changes in average methylation, we observed that the epiallele distribution was profoundly different, gradually shifting toward organized patterns specific to the glial or neuronal cell types. Our findings provide a deep view of gene methylation heterogeneity in brain cell populations promising to furnish innovative ways to unravel mechanisms underlying methylation patterns generation and alteration in brain diseases.

Colony size effect on neural differentiation of embryonic stem cells microprinted on stromal cells.

Controlling cellular microenvironment to induce neural differentiation of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) remains a major challenge. We address this need by introducing a micro-engineered co-culture system that resembles embryonic development in terms of direct intercellular interactions and induces neural differentiation of ESCs. A polymeric aqueous two-phase system (ATPS)-mediated robotic microprinting technology allows precise localization of mouse ESCs (mESCs) over a layer of supporting stromal cells. mESCs proliferate over a 2-week culture period into a single colony of defined size. Physical and chemical cues from the stromal cells guide mESCs to differentiate toward specific neural lineages. We generated mESC colonies of three different sizes from 100, 250 and 500 single cells and showed that size of mESC colonies is an important factor determining the yield of neural cells. Expression of early neural cell markers nestin denoting neural stem cells, NCAM specifying neural progenitors, and β-III tubulin (TuJ) indicating post mitotic neurons escalated from day 4. Differentiation into specific neural cells astrocytes marked by GFAP, oligodendrocytes indicated by CNPase, and TH-positive dopaminergic neurons was observed during the second week of culture. Unexpectedly, analysis of protein expression revealed a disproportionate increase in neural differentiation of mESCs by increase in the colony size. For the first time, our study establishes colony size as an important regulator of fate of ESCs in this heterocellular niche. This approach of deriving neural cells may make a major impact on stem cell research for treating neurodegenerative diseases.

MiR-744 and miR-224 Downregulate Npas4 and Affect Lineage Differentiation Potential and Neurite Development During Neural Differentiation of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells.

Neuronal PAS domain protein 4 (Npas4) is a brain-specific transcription factor whose expression is enriched in neurogenic regions of the brain. In addition, it was demonstrated that Npas4 expression is dynamic and highly regulated during neural differentiation of embryonic stem cells (ESCs). While these findings implicate a role for Npas4 in neurogenesis, the underlying mechanisms of regulation remain unknown. Given that growing evidence suggests that microRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in both embryonic and adult neurogenesis, we reasoned that miRNAs are good candidates for regulating Npas4 expression during neural differentiation of ESCs. In this study, we utilized the small RNA sequencing method to profile miRNA expression during neural differentiation of mouse ESCs. Two differentially expressed miRNAs were identified to be able to significantly reduce reporter gene activity by targeting the Npas4 3'UTR, namely miR-744 and miR-224. More importantly, ectopic expression of these miRNAs during neural differentiation resulted in downregulation of endogenous Npas4 expression. Subsequent functional analysis revealed that overexpression of either miR-744 or miR-224 delayed early neural differentiation, reduced GABAergic neuron production and inhibited neurite outgrowth. Collectively, our findings indicate that Npas4 not only functions at the early stages of neural differentiation but may also, in part, contribute to neuronal subtype specification and neurite development.

CD38 Is Required for Neural Differentiation of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells by Modulating Reactive Oxygen Species.

CD38 is a multifunctional membrane enzyme and the main mammalian ADP-ribosyl cyclase, which catalyzes the synthesis and hydrolysis of cADPR, a potent endogenous Ca(2+) mobilizing messenger. Here, we explored the role of CD38 in the neural differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs). We found that the expression of CD38 was decreased during the differentiation of mouse ESCs initiated by adherent monoculture. Perturbing the CD38/cADPR signaling by either CD38 knockdown or treatment of cADPR antagonists inhibited the neural commitment of mouse ESCs, whereas overexpression of CD38 promoted it. Moreover, CD38 knockdown dampened reactive oxygen species (ROS) production during neural differentiation of ESCs by inhibiting NADPH oxidase activity, while CD38 overexpression enhanced it. Similarly, application of hydrogen peroxide mitigated the inhibitory effects of CD38 knockdown on neural differentiation of ESCs. Taken together, our data indicate that the CD38 signaling pathway is required for neural differentiation of mouse ESCs by modulating ROS production.

Genome-wide analysis of histone acetylation dynamics during mouse embryonic stem cell neural differentiation.

Epigenetic modification as an intrinsic fine-tune program cooperates with key transcription factors to regulate the cell fate determination. The histone acetylation participating in neural differentiation of pluripotent stem cells is expected but not well studied. Here, using acetylated histone H3 ChIP-sequencing (ChIP-seq), we demonstrate that the histone H3 acetylation level is gradually increased on the neural gene loci while decreased on the neural-inhibitory gene loci during mouse embryonic stem cell (mESC) neural differentiation. We further show that histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) is essential for neural commitment by targeting Nodal signaling. Thus, our study reveals a mechanism by which the epigenetic modification of histone acetylation/deacetylation interacts with extracellular signaling in mESC neural fate determination. Data were deposited in Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets under reference number GSE66025.

Distinct gene expression responses of two anticonvulsant drugs in a novel human embryonic stem cell based neural differentiation assay protocol

Hazard assessment of chemicals and pharmaceuticals is increasingly gaining from knowledge about molecular mechanisms of toxic action acquired in dedicated in vitro assays. We have developed an efficient human embryonic stem cell neural differentiation test (hESTn) that allows the study of the molecular interaction of compounds with the neural differentiation process. Within the 11-day differentiation protocol of the assay, embryonic stem cells lost their pluripotency, evidenced by the reduced expression of stem cell markers Pou5F1 and Nanog. Moreover, stem cells differentiated into neural cells, with morphologically visible neural structures together with increased expression of neural differentiation-related genes such as βIII-tubulin, Map2, Neurogin1, Mapt and Reelin. Valproic acid (VPA) and carbamazepine (CBZ) exposure during hESTn differentiation led to concentration-dependent reduced expression of βIII-tubulin, Neurogin1 and Reelin. In parallel VPA caused an increased gene expression of Map2 and Mapt which is possibly related to the neural protective effect of VPA. These findings illustrate the added value of gene expression analysis for detecting compound specific effects in hESTn. Our findings were in line with and could explain effects observed in animal studies. This study demonstrates the potential of this assay protocol for mechanistic analysis of specific compound-induced inhibition of human neural cell differentiation.

MRNA-Seq and microRNA-Seq whole-transcriptome analyses of rhesus monkey embryonic stem cell neural differentiation revealed the potential regulators of rosette neural stem cells.

Rosette neural stem cells (R-NSCs) represent early stage of neural development and possess full neural differentiation and regionalization capacities. R-NSCs are considered as stem cells of neural lineage and have important implications in the study of neurogenesis and cell replacement therapy. However, the molecules regulating their functional properties remain largely unknown. Rhesus monkey is an ideal model to study human neural degenerative diseases and plays intermediate translational roles as therapeutic strategies evolved from rodent systems to human clinical applications. In this study, we derived R-NSCs from rhesus monkey embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and systematically investigated the unique expressions of mRNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs), and signalling pathways by genome-wide comparison of the mRNA and miRNA profilings of ESCs, R-NSCs at early (R-NSCP1) and late (R-NSCP6) passages, and neural progenitor cells. Apart from the R-NSCP1-specific protein-coding genes and miRNAs, we identified several pathways including Hedgehog and Wnt highly activated in R-NSCP1. The possible regulatory interactions among the miRNAs, protein-coding genes, and signalling pathways were proposed. Besides, many genes with alternative splicing switch were identified at R-NSCP1. These data provided valuable resource to understand the regulation of early neurogenesis and to better manipulate the R-NSCs for cell replacement therapy.

Role of STIM1 in survival and neural differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells independent of Orai1-mediated Ca2 + entry

Store-operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE) is an important Ca2+ influx pathway in non-excitable cells. STIM1, an ER Ca2+ sensor, and Orai1, a plasma membrane Ca2+ selective channel, are the two essential components of the Ca2+ release activated channel (CRAC) responsible for SOCE activity. Here we explored the role of STIM1 and Orai1 in neural differentiation of mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells. We found that STIM1 and Orai1 were expressed and functionally active in ES cells, and expressions of STIM1 and Orai1 were dynamically regulated during neural differentiation of mouse ES cells. STIM1 knockdown inhibited the differentiation of mouse ES cells into neural progenitors, neurons, and astrocytes. In addition, STIM1 knockdown caused severe cell death and markedly suppressed the proliferation of neural progenitors. Surprisingly, Orai1 knockdown had little effect on neural differentiation of mouse ES cells, but the neurons derived from Orai1 knockdown ES cells, like those from STIM1 knockdown cells, had defective SOCE. Taken together, our data indicate that STIM1 is involved in both early neural differentiation of ES cells and survival of early differentiated ES cells independent of Orai1-mediated SOCE.

Embryonic stem cells neural differentiation qualifies the role of Wnt/β-Catenin signals in human telencephalic specification and regionalization

Wnt-ligands are among key morphogens that mediate patterning of the anterior territories of the developing brain in mammals. We qualified the role of Wnt-signals in regional specification and subregional organization of the human telencephalon using human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). One step neural conversion of hPSCs using SMAD inhibitors leads to progenitors with a default rostral identity. It provides an ideal biological substrate for investigating the role of Wnt signaling in both anteroposterior and dorso-ventral processes. Challenging hPSC-neural derivatives with Wnt-antagonists, alone or combined with sonic hedgehog (Shh), we found that Wnt-inhibition promote both telencephalic specification and ventral patterning of telencephalic neural precursors in a dose-dependent manner. Using optimal Wnt-antagonist and Shh-agonist signals we produced human ventral-telencephalic precursors, committed to differentiation into striatal projection neurons both in vitro and in vivo after homotypic transplantation in quinolinate-lesioned rats. This study indicates that sequentially organized Wnt-signals play a key role in the development of human ventral telencephalic territories from which the striatum arise. In addition, the optimized production of hPSC-derived striatal cells described here offers a relevant biological resource for exploring and curing Huntington disease.

Three‐dimensional neural differentiation of embryonic stem cells with ACM induction in microfibrous matrices in bioreactors

The clinical use of pluripotent stem cell (PSC)-derived neural cells requires an efficient differentiation process for mass production in a bioreactor. Toward this goal, neural differentiation of murine embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in three-dimensional (3D) polyethylene terephthalate microfibrous matrices was investigated in this study. To streamline the process and provide a platform for process integration, the neural differentiation of ESCs was induced with astrocyte-conditioned medium without the formation of embryoid bodies, starting from undifferentiated ESC aggregates expanded in a suspension bioreactor. The 3D neural differentiation was able to generate a complex neural network in the matrices. When compared to 2D differentiation, 3D differentiation in microfibrous matrices resulted in a higher percentage of nestin-positive cells (68% vs. 54%) and upregulated gene expressions of nestin, Nurr1, and tyrosine hydroxylase. High purity of neural differentiation in 3D microfibrous matrix was also demonstrated in a spinner bioreactor with 74% nestin + cells. This study demonstrated the feasibility of a scalable process based on 3D differentiation in microfibrous matrices for the production of ESC-derived neural cells.

Identification of differentially expressed non-coding RNAs in embryonic stem cell neural differentiation

Identification of differentially expressed non-coding RNAs in embryonic stem cell neural differentiation

Identification of differentially expressed non-coding RNAs in embryonic stem cell neural differentiation

Protein-coding genes, guiding differentiation of ES cells into neural cells, have extensively been studied in the past. However, for the class of ncRNAs only the involvement of some specific microRNAs (miRNAs) has been described. Thus, to characterize the entire small non-coding RNA (ncRNA) transcriptome, involved in the differentiation of mouse ES cells into neural cells, we have generated three specialized ribonucleo-protein particle (RNP)-derived cDNA libraries, i.e. from pluripotent ES cells, neural progenitors and differentiated neural cells, respectively. By high-throughput sequencing and transcriptional profiling we identified several novel miRNAs to be involved in ES cell differentiation, as well as seven small nucleolar RNAs. In addition, expression of 7SL, 7SK and vault-2 RNAs was significantly up-regulated during ES cell differentiation. About half of ncRNA sequences from the three cDNA libraries mapped to intergenic or intragenic regions, designated as interRNAs and intraRNAs, respectively. Thereby, novel ncRNA candidates exhibited a predominant size of 18–30 nt, thus resembling miRNA species, but, with few exceptions, lacking canonical miRNA features. Additionally, these novel intraRNAs and interRNAs were not only found to be differentially expressed in stem-cell derivatives, but also in primary cultures of hippocampal neurons and astrocytes, strengthening their potential function in neural ES cell differentiation.

Sanofi-Cell Research outstanding paper award of 2010

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2nd annual Sanofi-Cell Research Outstanding Paper Award, for papers published in the print issues of Cell Research in 2010. Dr Wen-Chao Song receives the 2010 Sanofi-Cell Research Outstanding Review Article Award, for his review paper entitled “Complement and its role in innate and adaptive immune responses” 1. The winners for the 2010 Sanofi-Cell Research Outstanding Research Article Award are Drs Gang Pei and Jian Zhao, for their paper entitled “A GPCR/secretase complex regulates β- and γ-secretase specificity for Aβ production and contributes to AD pathogenesis” 2; and Drs Charlie Degui Chen and Naihe Jing, for their paper entitled “Dual-specificity histone demethylase KIAA1718 (KDM7A) regulates neural differentiation through FGF4” 3. The award consists of a prize of € 3 000 for the Outstanding Review Article Award and € 5 000 for the Outstanding Research Article Award provided by Sanofi. The winner must be the corresponding author(s) of the paper. The three award-winning papers (one review and two research articles) are selected by the Sanofi-Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences Steering Committee based on their scientific excellence. The complement system is a major part of the innate immune system and plays an important role in the clearance of pathogens and thus the fight against infection. Song's review article 1 summarizes the roles of the complement system both in the innate detection and elimination of pathogenic infections and in the modulation of adaptive immune responses. This review provides an expert synthesis of the up-to-date knowledge of the functions of the complement system. Amyloid-β (Aβ) is a peptide derived from the amyloid precursor protein (APP) through cleavages by the β-site APP-cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1) and γ-secretase complex, and plays an important role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The paper by Pei and Zhao 2 reports that δ-opioid receptor (DOR) promotes the processing of APP by BACE1 and γ-secretase, through complex formation between DOR and the secretases. They further show that knockdown or antagonization of DOR reduces secretase activities and ameliorates Aβ pathology and Aβ-dependent behavioral deficits, but does not affect the processing of other secretase substrates such as Notch, N-cadherin or APLP in AD model mice. These findings suggest that targeting the DOR/secretases interface may represent a new therapeutic strategy against AD with potentially fewer side effects. This paper was also highlighted by Faculty of 1000 4 and Nature China 5. Histone methylation is dynamically regulated by histone methyltransferases and histone demethylases. The paper by Chen and Jing 3 reports the identification of a novel histone demethylase with a unique dual-specificity for dimethylations at K9 and K27 of histone H3 (H3K9me2 and H3K27me2). Using embryonic stem (ES) cells as a model system, they show that the activity of this demethylase (named as KDM7A) is required for the demethylation of H3K9me2 and H3K27me2 at the promoter region of the FGF4 gene, and plays an important role in neural differentiation of ES cells. This study provides novel insights into both the biochemical actions and functional roles of histone demethylases. We would like to extend our warm congratulations to the winners, and hope that highlighting these papers by the Sanofi-Cell Research Outstanding Paper Award will encourage others to submit their best papers to Cell Research in the future.

Influence of nerve growth factor on proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis of neural stem cells

Objective To evaluate the influence of different doses of nerve growth factor (NGF) on the proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis of embryonic rat neural stem cells. Methods The neural stem cells were isolated from subventricular zone of rat embryonic brains and cultured in serum-free medium DMEM/F12 with B27. NGF with different doses of 10, 20, 50 μg/L were added into the different experimental groups. The proliferation ability of the cells was measured by methyl thiazol tetrazolium (MTT) assay at 10th day. All cells were collected in plates at 7th day. Streptvidin-peroxidase immunocytochemistry was used to detect the expression of neuron specific enolase (NSE) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) , and the number of NSE( + ) and GFAP( + ) cells was counted. The apoptosis rat at 5th day after culture was assessed. Results There was no significant difference in the the number of neurospheres between 10 μg/L NGF group (0. 150 ±0. 025) and positive control group (0. 158 ±0. 017), but there was significant difference between 10 μg/L NGF group and blank control group (0. 128 ±0. 015). In 10, 20,50 μg/L N GF groups, the rate of NSE ( + ) cells was ( 15. 21 ± 1.27) %, (20. 64 ± 2. 61 )%, (24. 20 ± 3. 10) %, and that of GFAP( + ) cells was (27.98 ± 2. 35 ) %, ( 28.94 ± 2. 84 ) %, ( 30. 79 ± 3.23 ) % respectively. The rate of cells differentiation was increased with the dose of NGF added[( FNsE (+ ) = 3.47,FGFAp( + ) = 3. 47 ,PGFAP( + ) ＜ 0. 05)]. Flow cytometry revealed that in 20, 50 μg/L NGF groups the apoptosis rate was significantly increased as compared with other groups. The proliferation index (PI) in 10 μg/L NGF group was higher than other groups. Conclusion NGF at a rational dose can promote the proliferation and differentiation of human NSC. Low dose of NGF mainly facilitates the proliferation of NSCs, and high dose of NGF shows obvious influence on proliferation of NSC. Key words: Neural growth factor; Neural stem cells; Proliferation; Differentiation