Differentiation of primary embryonic neuroblasts in purified neural cell cultures from Drosophila.

Embryonic neuroblasts of Drosophila are undifferentiated precursor cells that give rise to the central nervous system. Centrifugal elutriation has been employed to fractionate embryonic cells on the basis of size. A fraction of large cells was found to be greatly enriched for neuroblasts, whereas mesodermal precursor cells were completely excluded. This allowed a second step of purification, based upon adhesion to glass, to provide virtually pure cultures of neural cells. The cells in these cultures had the properties of neurons of the Drosophila CNS: They gave rise to ganglion-like clusters from which neurites extended on the culture substrate, and they expressed the enzyme, acetylcholinesterase, and the cell surface antigens recognized by antisera raised against horseradish peroxidase. The production of large-scale neuronal cell cultures will be useful for immunological and molecular studies of neural cell differentiation.