title: Immunohistochemical studies on neuron-specific enolase in developing rat vallate papillae.
abstract: The detailed morphology of the nerve fibers and the taste bud cells in developing vallate papillae of the rat tongue was investigated utilizing the immunoperoxidase technique to detect neuron-specific enolase (NSE). For convenience of description, five stages of development were defined: Stage 1, the fifteenth and the sixteenth embryonic day (E15-E16): NSE like immunoreactive (NSE-) nerve fibers, with some random arborization, appeared around the median lingual sulcus at the base of the tongue; Stage 2 (E16-E17): NSE-nerve fibers invading the central core of newly formed vallate papilla and underlying the apical epithelium of the papilla; Stage 3 (E18-E21): round-shaped undifferentiated NSE-taste bud cells appearing in the apical epithelium; Stage 4, the first day of postnatal age (P1): NSE-taste bud cells migrated to the side epithelium, lining the gutter beneath which the nerve plexus formed during E18-E21, and extended cytoplasmic process toward the surface and/or the basal lamina; Stage 5 (P3-P5): NSE-nerve fibers and spindle-shaped NSE-taste bud cells with a typical figure of taste bud cells appeared in newly formed taste buds in the side epithelium, lining the gutter. The sequential topographic development of nerve preceding NSE-taste bud cells in precise morphological locations, suggests that the ingress of precursor NSE-taste bud cells and their subsequent differentiation are contingent upon initial neural derived ontologic signals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hirata
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kanaseki
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D005260:Female; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008297:Male; D009412:Nerve Fibers; D010751:Phosphopyruvate Hydratase / Q000032:analysis*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013650:Taste Buds / Q000196:embryology* / Q000201:enzymology; D014059:Tongue / Q000196:embryology
chemical_list: D010751:Phosphopyruvate Hydratase