MIHAELA TEMELIE, MIHAELA BACALUM, C.C. MUSTĂCIOSU, M. RADU

“Horia Hulubei” National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering – IFIN HH, 30, Reactorului St, P.O.BOX MG-6, Bucharest – Măgurele, ROMANIA

Abstract: OLN-93 is a rat cell line frequently used as a model for oligodendrocyte, the glial cells which form the myelin sheath in central nervous system. In this study we analyzed the morphological changes induced by serum deprivation and growing substrate on OLN-93 cells. Under normal growth conditions, in media with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) the cells have a bipolar, elongated morphology. At 1% FBS, OLNs adopt a more arborized morphology. The substrate also proved to have an important role, inducing morphological changes on OLN-93s even when the cells are growth at 10% FBS. On poly-lysine the proportion of highly branched cells increases and appears also a population of very large, flattened cells; the amount of branched cells is even higher on extracellular matrix (ECM). These changes suggest that ECM gel can be used as a better growing substrate for differentiation of OLN-93 cells, compared to poly-lysine. Combining substrate influence with serum deprivation provides an improved method to induce morphological differentiation of OLN-93 cells.
Key words: olygodendrocytes, OLN – 93, differentiation, morphology, ECM, poly-D-lysine.

Corresponding author’s e-mail: mycky_sweet@yahoo.com

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