Isolation and Purification of Schwann Cells from Spinal Nerves of Neonatal Rat

Primary cultured Schwann cells (SCs) are widely used in the investigation of the biology of SC and are important seed cells for neural tissue engineering. Here, we describe a novel protocol for harvesting primary cultured SCs from neonatal Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. In the present protocol, dissociated SCs are isolated from the spinal nerves of neonatal rats and purified by the treatment of cytosine arabinoside (AraC).