The gut supports neurogenic differentiation of periocular mesenchyme, a chondrogenic neural crest-derived cell population.
Periocular mesenchyme (PM) is a mesencephalic neural crest derived cell population which as a result of an interaction with the retinal pigment epithelium forms the scleral cartilage of the avian eye. Enteric neurons are derived from vagal crest cells which invade the gut. To study factors which regulate neuronal differentiation, we investigated whether the gut could direct neurogenesis in PM, a cell population that does not produce neurons in vivo. We report here that PM cultured in the presence of aneural chick hindgut on the chorioallantoic membrane (CAM), invaded the gut and formed large numbers of neurons. These were localized in enteric ganglia and contained neurofilament immunoreactivity, vasoactive intestinal peptide immunoreactivity, and somatostatin immunoreactivity. In the control PM cultured alone on the CAM, a small number of cells contained neurofilament immunoreactivity but lacked the appearance of mature neurons.
Smith-Thomas
L C
LC
Davis
J P
JP
Epstein
M L
ML
D000818:Animals; D002356:Cartilage / Q000166:cytology* / Q000196:embryology; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002642:Chick Embryo; D002645:Chickens; D003370:Coturnix; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000166:cytology; D004847:Epithelial Cells; D007422:Intestines / Q000502:physiology*; D008636:Mesencephalon / Q000166:cytology / Q000196:embryology; D009432:Neural Crest / Q000166:cytology*; D012160:Retina