What is a neurosphere formation?

A neurosphere formation refers to a specific type of culture system that’s made up of free-floating clusters of neural stem cells. They are formed by plating neural stem cells at appropriate densities in suitable low-attachment culture plates. In such an environment, stem cells divide continuously, generating non-adherent spherical clusters of cells called neurospheres. These neurospheres are not identical to stem cells. Instead, they contain only a small percentage of true neural stem cells. The other cells in the neurosphere are in various phases of differentiation.

Neurospheres allow researchers to study neural precursor cells in vitro. They have also been used for peripheral nerve regeneration. Neural stem cells have been transplanted into various tissues with a successful differentiation and proliferation in these tissues.

Neurosphere formation of neural stem cells is a widely used in vitro culture system and a valuable model to study neurogenesis and neural development.