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 sialyated form of the cell adhesion molecule N‐CAM (E‐N‐CAM) are precursor cells, as jugded 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‐immunofluorescence analyses showed that ht emajority of E‐N‐CAM+ cells isolated on prenatal days 15 to 18 differentiated into neurons while a small subset of Mab RB21‐7 binding cells proved to be astrocytic precursors and/or bipotential. The proportion of E‐N‐CAM+ astrocytic precursors increased during later development (prenatal day 22) concomitantly with the onset of gliogenesis. While conversion of E‐N‐CAM to mature forms of N‐CAM was never observed in neurons during cultivation, E‐N‐CAM+ cells of the astrocyte lineage switched to N‐CAM soon after the onset of GFAP expression. A lineage‐specific transition of E‐N‐CAM to mature N‐CAM expression is, therefore, suggested for these astrocytic progenitor cells during rat brain development. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.