In vitro differentiation of E-N-CAM expressing rat neural precursor cells isolated by FACS during prenatal development

Most fetal rat brain cells expressing the embryonal, highly sialylated form of the cell adhesion molecule N-CAM (E-N-CAM) are precursor cells, as judged from the absence of marker molecules specific for mature neural cell types. However, the detection of E-N-CAM+ cells in frozen sections does not provide information on the lineage-specific differentiation of these cells during development. To investigate their differentiation behaviour in vitro, E-N-CAM+ cells were isolated at different times of brain development by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS), using a monoclonal antibody (Mab RB21-7) which specifically recognizes polysialic acid (PSA) residues on E-N-CAM. Double-immunofluore…