[Cultivation and differentiation of spinal cord-derived stem cells in vitro in rats].

To investigate the method of cultivation and the feature of differentiation of spinal cord-derived stem cells in vitro.The neural stem cells from spinal cord of 15 days fetal rats were harvested and cultivated in a serum-free limited medium. The stem cells were induced to differentiate and the results were identified by cellular immunohistochemistry.Lots of stem cells were obtained from the spinal cord of fetal rats and the sphere of stem cells was formed about 10 days. Neural stem cells can give rise to mature neurons and astrocytes.Epidermal growth factor/basic fibroblast growth factor serum-free limited medium can promote the proliferation activity of the stem cells. Spinal cord-derived stem cells can differentiate into glial cells and neurons.