Abstract:  There are many ways to extract and culture neural stem cells in vitro, but the viability and stability of neural stem cells obtained by different methods are different. By thinking about the process of extracting and culturing neural stem cells in vitro from the cerebral cortex of SD fetal rats, we summarized extraction steps, the main points of extraction, the selection basis of culture medium, selection of inoculation density, cultural method, methods of solution changing, passage time and passage methods. At last a large number of neural stem cells with high vitality and stability have been obtained and applied to the basic research of neural stem cells.

Key words: stem cells, neurons, culture media, serial passage, cell extraction, suspension culture method