Effect of hydrocortisone on immunohistochemically demonstrable phenylethanolamine-N-methyltransferase in cultures of embryonic and postnatal superior cervical ganglia.
Pre- and postnatal superior cervical ganglia of the rat were cultured in Rose chambers for 1-7 days with or without hydrocortisone. Phenylethanolamine-N-methyltransferase (PNMT) was demonstrated by indirect immunofluorescence technique. In cultures without added hydrocortisone, no cells or fibres showed PNMT-immunoreactivity, without regard to the time in culture or the developmental stage at the time of explantation. The first PNMT-immunoreactive cells in hydrocortisone-containing cultures appeared 3 days after the explantation of E14 ganglia, or 1 day after the explantation of E15 ganglia, i.e. at the developmental stage E16-E17. The cultures of neither E14 nor E15 ganglia showed marked fibre growth from the PNMT-immunoreactive cell bodies. On the other hand, in the hydrocortisone-containing cultures of newborn or postnatal rats, there was extensive nerve fibre formation from the PNMT-immunoreactive cells in the course of the culture. PNMT-immunoreactive cells did not appear in hydrocortisone-containing cultures of ganglia taken from rats older than 17 postnatal days.
D000818:Animals; D046508:Culture Techniques; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian; D005728:Ganglia, Sympathetic / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000201:enzymology; D006651:Histocytochemistry; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000494:pharmacology*; D007120:Immunochemistry; D010625:Phenylethanolamine N-Methyltransferase / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains
D010625:Phenylethanolamine N-Methyltransferase; D006854:Hydrocortisone