Research reportIsolation and culture of human oligodendrocyte precursor cells from neurospheres

- We developed a reproducible, simple, and economical method of obtaining human OPCs from neurospheres.
- Isolated human OPCs have high purity and robust proliferative capacity.
- After induction, the OPCs can differentiate into oligodendrocytes.

Culture of human oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) can help understand the regulatory mechanism of differentiation and myelination of oligodendrocytes. However, existing culture methods have limitations, particularly the lack of a source of human donor tissue and high cost. We sorted cells with the A2B5+PSA-NCAM- phenotype from neurospheres instead of human donor tissues through immunomagnetic sorting and subsequently cultured the isolated cells in OPC medium. Of all the isolated cells, 15.69% were of the A2B5+PSA-NCAM- phenotype. More than 90% of the isolated OPCs expressed the OPC-specific markers O4, PDGFαR, and Sox10, and less than 5% of cells expressed GFAP and Tuj-1. After induction, the isolated cells had the capacity to differentiate into oligodendrocytes. Furthermore, the OPCs could be stably passaged in vitro for at least four generations and all the cells had high expression levels of O4 and Sox10 and very low expression levels of GFAP and Tuj-1; moreover, the cells had the capacity to differentiate into oligodendrocytes. After four passages, OPCs can proliferate at least 14 times above. In addition, in the presence of B27, only one cytokine, namely, bFGF, was sufficient to maintain proliferation, and this greatly reduced the experimental cost. Cells of the A2B5+PSA-NCAM- phenotype have already been identified as OPCs. We developed and characterized a reproducible, simple, and economical method for the isolation and culture of human OPCs. This method will contribute to studying the function of OPCs in development, disease, and treatment.