The objective of the experiment was to separate neural stem cells from fetal rat brain by using immunomagnetic beads, and to study their morphology and marker on cell membrane. Cell suspension of the fetal rat cerebral cortex was incubated with antibody against Nestin and the labeled cells were separated through magnetic field by immunomagnetic beads coated with the second antibody. We determined the purity of the separated cells and the cell activity by light microscopy and detected the Nestin expression ratio of the sorted cells by flow cytomety. The morphology of neural stem cells was observed with a scanning electron microscope. The results showed that the purity of the separated cells was 87 8%%+2 4%, the activity of the cells was 94 8%+2 3%, and the Nestin expression ratio of the sorted cells was 88 3%+1 04%. Binding of the sorted cells to beads was shown under scanning electron microscope.Our conclusions are the magnetic cell sorting system we used can effectively separate neural stem cells from the cerebral cortex cell suspension and maintain their activity. The sorted cells can be used in the subsequent experiments.