Murine forebrain and midbrain crest cells generate different characteristic derivatives in vitro |
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Authors: | Suconta Chareonvit Noriko Osumi-Yamashita Masa-aki Ikeda Kazuhiro Eto |
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Institution: | Department of Developmental Biology, Division of Life Science of Maxillo-Facial Systems, Graduate School of Dentistry, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113, Japan. |
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Abstract: | Neural crest (NC) is a transient structure that gives rise to various types of tissues. Many NC cells are pluripotent in the sense that their progeny can generate more than one derivative. However, the potentiality to differentiate into certain derivatives, such as cartilage and bone, seems to be specified with respect to the neuraxial levels at which the NC generates. In order to compare the differentiation potentiality of different regions of head NC, the derivatives of forebrain and midbrain mouse NC have been investigated in vitro using explant cultures of neuroepithelial fragments. From morphology and expression of specific markers, the midbrain crest cultures obviously generated earlier and were greater in number of neuronal cells than were the forebrain ones. Moreover, collagen type II positive cells were detected in the midbrain but not in the forebrain crest cultures. Finally, pigment cells were only observed in the forebrain cultures. The results suggest that the forebrain and midbrain crest cells have a different potentiality to differentiate. |
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Keywords: | differentiation potentiality forebrain midbrain mouse embryo neural crest culture |
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