National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health

We describe a simple and low cost technique for introducing high concentration of fluorescent and calcium-sensitive dyes into neurons or any neuronal tract using a polyethylene suction pipette.

Primary, human fetal brain-derived, multipotential progenitor cells proliferate in vitro while maintaining the capacity to differentiate into neurons and astrocytes. This work shows that neural progenitors can be induced to differentiate through stages of the oligodendrocytic lineage by conditioning with select growth factors.

A method was developed to directly derive human neural stem cells from hematopoietic progenitor cells enriched from peripheral blood cells.

Here, we present a method for visualizing the uptake of 3 kDa Texas Red-labeled dextran in auditory hair cells with functional mechanotransduction channels. In addition, dextrans of 3–10 kDa can be used to study endocytosis in hair and supporting cells of the organ of Corti.