The rats that underwent a sham operation received the same volume of vehicle without microspheres. NPC cultures NPCs were prepared from gestational day 14 fetal Wistar rats, as described previously (Mochizuki et al. 2008; Moriyama et al. 2011). Cells were seeded at

a density of 50,000 cells/cm2 into nontreated flasks (Nalge Nunc International, New York, NY) containing N-2 plus medium supplemented with 20 Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical ng/mL epidermal growth factor and 20 ng/mL basic fibroblast growth factor (b-FGF; growth medium). The NPCs were grown in culture as free-floating neurospheres, and 80% of the medium was exchanged for new growth medium on day 4. For the experiments, neurospheres cultured for 6 days in vitro were used. In some experiments, NPCs were prepared from gestational day-14 fetal green-fluorescent protein (GFP) transgenic rats, as described previously (Moriyama et al. 2011). The GFP transgenic rats (Wistar-TgN [CAG-GFP] 184ys) used in this study were provided by National Bio Resource Project for the Rat

in Japan (Kyoto, Japan). Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical The origin and characteristics of the transgenic rats were described previously (Hakamata et al. 2001). The protocol was Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical approved by the Committee of Animal Care and Welfare of Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences. For immunostaining of floating cultured neurospheres, they were attached by incubation on poly-l-lysine (PTC124 price Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO)-coated slides for 1 h at 25°C and then fixed for 30 min with 4% paraformaldehyde. The primary antibodies used Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical for neurospheres were rat monoclonal anti-GFP (Nacalai Tesque, Kyoto, Japan) and rabbit polyclonal anti-musashi-1 (Chemicon, Temecula, CA). Omission of primary antibodies served as negative controls. No immunostaining was detected in the group of negative controls. For differentiation, neurospheres were cultured for 6 days in Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical vitro followed by replacement of the medium with Dulbecco’s modified Eagle medium (DMEM)/F12 medium without EGF and b-FGF on day 7.

The neurospheres were then cultured for seven additional days. For immunostaining of differentiated NPCs, the following primary antibodies were used: mouse monoclonal anti-MAP2 (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO), detecting neurons; rabbit polyclonal antiglial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) (DAKO, Carpinteria, CA), labeling astrocytes; and mouse monoclonal anti-RIP (Chemicon, Temecula, CA), marking oligodendrocytes. The secondary antibodies used were Alexa Fluor 488 Thymidine kinase chicken anti-rat immunoglobulin G (IgG; Molecular Probes, Inc., Eugene, OR), fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated donkey anti-mouse IgG (Jackson ImmunoResearch, West Grove, PA), or Cy3-conjugated donkey anti-rabbit IgG (Jackson ImmunoResearch). Fluorescence was detected using Olympus fluorescence microscopy (BX-52, Olympus, Tokyo, Japan) or with a KEYENCE BZ-8000 (KEYENCE, Osaka, Japan). Omission of primary antibodies served as negative controls, which showed no immunostaining.