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STEMCELL Technologies Introduces Method for Identifying and Quantifying Neural Stem and Progenitor Cells In-Vitro
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STEMCELL Technologies has introduced the NeuroCult® Neural Colony-Forming Cell (NCFC) Assay. The assay is designed to increase the accuracy of studying neural stem cells in vitro and therefore, the evaluation of the therapeutic potential of neural stem cells, the company says.
“The NeuroCult® Neural Colony-Forming Cell Assay is an improvement over the widely used Neurosphere Assay because it provides researchers with a reliable way to detect alterations in neural stem cell frequency, which is necessary for evaluating the cells’ therapeutic potential,” states Dr. Sharon A. Louis, Senior Scientist at STEMCELL Technologies.
“Our findings imply that while the Neurosphere Assay provides a simple means to isolate and expand neural stem cells harvested from the embryonic and adult mammalian CNS, its application as a quantitative in vitro assay for measuring NSC frequency is limited. Presently, the Neurosphere Assay is the most frequently adopted method for isolating, expanding and calculating the frequency of neural stem cells, so our findings will impact highly cited research performed using this method,” Dr. Louis added.
The new NeuroCult® Neural Colony-Forming Cell Assay is a significant advancement in the neural stem cell field because it discriminates between neural stem cells and neural progenitor cells based on the size of the colonies they form (proliferative potential), allowing researchers to easily and accurately distinguish and quantify these cell populations in vitro.
The results of this study are published in the article “Enumeration of Neural Stem and Progenitor Cells in the Neural Colony-Forming Cell Assay” in the April 2008 issue of Stem Cells.
The NeuroCult® Neural Colony-Forming Cell Assay was developed by Dr. Sharon A. Louis and Dr. Brent A. Reynolds at STEMCELL Technologies with further work performed in collaboration with Dr. Brent A. Reynolds and researchers at the Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, Australia.
