Abstract: Objective To screen the expression pattern of Twist1 during the development of cerebral cortex at different stages, and investigate the potential function of Twist1 in neural progenitor cell differentiation; Methods Expression pattern of Twist1 in mice developing cerebral cortex was clarified by in situ hybridization, and in utero electroporation of overexpression plasmid into the cerebral cortex neural progenitor cells was conducted to test the in vivo function of Twist1; Results Twist1 is expressed in cerebral cortex through differentiation stages tested, and showed a higher expression level in the ventricular zone, overexpression of Twist1 result in decreased cells in ventricular zone and more cells in intermediate zone(p<0.05); Conclusions Twist1 is expressed during the process of neural differentiation with a higher expression level in neural progenitor cells, and could promote neural differentiation in some extent.

Key words: Twist1, Neural Progenitor Cells, Differentiation