Fig. 1From: Nicorandil potentiates sodium butyrate induced preconditioning of neurons and enhances their survival upon subsequent treatment with H2O2 Neural stem cell culture and characterization. a Phase contrast image of neural stem cells (NSCs) derived aggregates of neurospheres after 5–7 days of in vitro culture in NuroCult NS-A medium. The cells were maintained at 37 °C and 5%CO2 culture conditions. Immunocytochemistry of NSCs for CD133 (b-d) and Nestin expression (e-g) using specific antibodies for the respective antigen. Differentiation of NSCs to oligodendrocyte and astrocyte was assessed by immunostaining for CNPase (Oligodendrocytes specific marker; h-j) and GFAP (astrocytes specific marker; k-m) expression using specific antibodies for the respective antigen. The cells were subjected to tri-lineage differentiation assay in vitro. (n-p) The neural differentiation of NSCs was confirmed by MAP-2 antibody stainingBack to article page