Derived from adult rat olfactory nerve and glomerular layers of the olfactory bulb, olfactory ensheathing cells(OECs) could be cultured in vitro. We identified OECs with GFAP and estimated the purity of OECs in primary cultures according to immunohistochemistry and characteristics of morphology. The results were as follows: (1) At 10 th day in vitro, two different kinds of cells could be identified: one was the fusiform and multipolar cells with thin and long processes; the other was flat cells with fri...