Background: Central nervous system (CNS) progenitor cells in the embryonic neural tube give rise to neurous and glial cells and express the nestin gene. It is important to define regulatory regions (enhancers) that function in this cell population.

Methods/Results: We have cloned and sequenced the human nestin second intron. A 657 base pair element of the intron, encompassing a region conserved to the rat intron, was coupled to the lacZ reporter gene. At embryonic day 10.5 the majority of the lacZ expressing embryos showed a reporter gene expression pattern similar to that of the endogenous nestin, i.e. in the majority of CNS progenitor cells.

Conclusion: These data provide the first insights into the regulation of the human nestin gene and demonstrate that a relatively short, evolutionarily conserved, region is sufficient to control gene expression in a pan-CNS progenitor cell manner.