Abstract: The induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are expected to be candidate cells for cell transplantation in treatment of ischemic brain injury since they have a strong ability to proliferate and differentiate, and an easy accessibility without immune rejection and ethical issues. However, recent experiments have found that the iPSCs transplanted into the brain almost form tumors. Inducing the iPSCs into neural precursor cells (NPCs) in vitro before tansplantation may avoid tumor formation in the brain. The present study therefore has used the N2B27 as medium in a multistep adherent culture to induce the iPSCs into the NPCs. Immunofluorescence staining showed that the neural stem cell marker nestin was positive in the NPCs, in which there were very fewβ-Tub-III positive cells. After 7 days culture in the differentiation culture medium, β-Tub-III positive cells increased. This experiment has confiemrd that the iPSCs can be induced into the NPCs in vitro, which are expected to be used in the treatment of ischemic brain injury.

Key words: induced pluripotent stem cells, neural precursor cells, differentiation, cell culture, immunofluorescence staining