[Effect of glucose-free treatment on the neural precursor cells in vitro].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the survival, division, and differentiation of neural precursor cells (NPCs) following glucose-free treatment in vitro.


METHODS
Cultured neonatal rat hippocampal NPCs were exposed to glucose-free media for 6 hours, and then were returned to regular media containing normal level glucose. At different time points after glucose-free treatment, trypan blue staining was used to determine cell viability, MTT assay to measure cell metabolic rate, 5'-bromo-deoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation to determine the NPCs division, and immunocellulochemistry and western blot analysis to study the NPCs differentiation.


RESULTS
(1) At different time points (0, 1, 7 d) after glucose-free treatment, NPCs viability decreased compared with NPCs control. On 0 and 1 d after glucose-free treatment, NPCs viability was higher than neurons viability. (2) On 0 and 1 d after glucose-free treatment, NPCs metabolic rates decreased significantly compared with NPCs control. On 0, 1, and 7 d after glucose-free treatment, NPCs metabolic rates were higher than that in neurons. (3) After glucose-free treatment, BrdU incorporation of NPCs was similar to NPCs control (P>0.05). (4) After glucose-free treatment, NPCs differentiation didn't change significantly (P>0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
These findings demonstrated that glucose-free treatment impaired NPC's viability, but didn't affect the division and differentiation of NPCs.
Bo
Tao
T
Department of Paediatrics, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing 100034, China. bot1114@163.net
Jiang
Yuwu
Y
Cao
Haiyan
H
Wang
Jingmin
J
Wu
Xiru
X
D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002455:Cell Division; D002470:Cell Survival; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005947:Glucose / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology*
D005947:Glucose